In Too Deep
by AvalonBay
Summary: "Determination becomes obsession and then it becomes all that matters."-Jeremy Irvine. When does a simple crush turn sinister? Billy knew it was best to nicely turn down unwanted advances. Unfortunately that doesn't help. When being unable to take a hint turns Violet McKinley into his personal stalker, Billy finds himself in too deep with no way out. -Side story to Avalon series-.
1. Chapter 1

**In Too Deep**

**Summary – **"Determination becomes obsession and then it becomes all that matters."-Jeremy Irvine. When does a simple crush turn into something more sinister? Billy understands that the best way to turn down unwanted advances is to be nice about it. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to help.

* * *

**Chapter 01**

* * *

Billy wouldn't ever really say he was shy.

It was just that there were some instances and social aspects he didn't particularly enjoy putting himself in.

Parties for example.

Kim tried to drag him and the rest of their friends to parties as much as she could. Yes, they were the kind of parties that had his classmates drinking until they passed out or hooked up on couches, in bedrooms, and in doorways. There were some parts of those parties he enjoyed; being able to hang out with people he wouldn't usually associate himself with in a casual setting, where he didn't have to worry about being a power rangers.

Yes, some of them were actually enjoyable, when drinking was down to a minimum and the party goers were hanging out with each other. He had moments where he was willing to step out of his comfort zone and enjoy himself a little, but there was still a more logical part of him that knew it wasn't really where he belonged.

It was the same instance with dating.

He had watched Kimberly flirt with guys and Jason and Zack flirt with girls and wondered what it was about him that many girls weren't interested in. While his friends had started to gather crushes in middle school, he was busy tinkering with his next invention or working on a science experiment watching his own crushes from afar. Wondering what it would be that would finally have girls change their minds about him. Then it had just happened that when he had gotten into high school and more girls found him interesting. Marge was the first one that had seemed to _really _see him. He had dated her for a while, and then there was Laura, and there was Melissa—he and the deaf young lady had gone out on a few dates but decided they were better off as friends. And that list wasn't including the few other girls he had met through Kimberly and Trini.

It hadn't mattered much to him at the time, what other girls thought, when he had started to notice the attention that Trini had given him. She was, arguably, the closest friend he had out of the original group and she seemed to have the same feelings for him. But he was skeptical about it. Why would someone as beautiful and graceful as her want to go out with out with him? To put it mildly, he had been confused when she had, in a way, asked herself out for him. Trini was beautiful, kind, smart, and willing to keep other's feelings in check in comparison with her own.

What would she like about him?

A shy guy that preferred to tinker with his toys in his garage laboratory or in the Command Center. A bit of a hermit, if he was honest with himself. And yet, she always had that special smile; eyes sparkling and dimples appearing in her cheeks that only she seemed to manage to do for him. The other smiles she gave out paled in comparison.

They had their own set of problems; Trini's parents had wanted her to date a Vietnamese man and were very vocal about their not approving of the relationship. But they had dated anyway, and while their relationship had continued to grow, they were aware things would end and it had when Trini decided to go to Vietnam with her family. They had parted on amicable terms, he respected her decision they were still friends. However with her leaving as well as leaving the team with Jason and Zack—who were soon replaced by Rocky, Adam, and Aisha—he found himself alone again. So much so that he hadn't realized that he had developed feelings for his best friend, orange ranger Avalon Mitchell, until it nearly smacked him over the head one day. He had been working on her communicator in his lab and, after having had a conversation with Kimberly, when he had suddenly thought about it. It wasn't a question as to whether or not he did like her, but a confirmation. He had kept it quiet as long as he could before telling the guys.

And now it was all he could think about. Not because he, particularly, was that sentimental or cared more than Kim did. But because Tommy, Rocky, and Kim had been pestering him about it all day.

Thankfully, the orange ranger—and his housemate—had an early doctor's appointment that day so he didn't have to suffer from even more embarrassment.

Still, he couldn't ignore the sly looks the white and pink rangers sent his way and the questions that the red ranger had constantly bombarded him with. If it wasn't for Adam—the black ranger, and Aisha—the yellow ranger, telling them to give him some space, he was sure he would have lost his cool for one of the first times in his life.

He had just arrived at the youth center and changed into his workout clothes, leaving to go to the workout floor when Rocky appeared in front of his face once more.

"C'mon man, you have to give me something," Rocky pleaded. "Some sort of information." He reached out and grabbed onto Kimberly's arm, pulling her to his side. As if on cue, the corners of the pink ranger's mouth turned down into a pout as Rocky pointed at her. "See? Kim's starting to lose that pretty smile of hers because you won't tell her anything."

Billy smirked at Kimberly, reaching out a hand and pressing his fingers into the corners of her mouth and pushing them upwards. "Then she's just going to have to get over it." Kimberly's pout deepened and she pushed his hand away, sticking her nose in the air as she turned back to her boyfriend, looping her arm through his.

Tommy laughed, putting his arm around Kimberly, a comforting gesture which she rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek.

Turning so that he was walking backwards, facing his friends, Billy frowned. "I already told you that I'm not comfortable with expressing my feelings as openly as some of you are," he said. "I just hope that you would treat me with the respect I show all of you." He suddenly stumbled, having bumped into someone.

Adam and Aisha reached out, grabbing onto his arms and pulled him upright before he hit the floor. The sound of items clattering to the floor had grabbed his attention and he immediately whirled around, spotting Violet McKinley lying on the floor, fumbling to put her glasses back on her face. Once they were settled she looked up, bright eyes widening when she potted the blue ranger. "O-Oh! Billy…"

"My apologies, Violet, I didn't see you there," Billy apologized. He reached down and started to gather her pencils and papers together, moving quickly so he could grab them before they blew across the hallway.

"It's OK," Violet replied with a shy smile. She tucked some of her shoulder-length chestnut hair behind her ear. "I wasn't watching where I was going. I'm just excited to get some work done on my art project." She gave Billy a meaningful smile and he gave a half-hearted one in reply.

Behind him, he could hear Kimberly and Tommy try to stifle a laugh.

Oh yes, that sculpture she had made of him, depicting him as a gold power ranger. As she had explained it, he had all of the qualities she believed a power ranger should have. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the thought she had put into her work, he had just been too shy to explain how…peculiar it was to him to be built up like that. It was different when he was a hero that little kids looked up to him to be. But to be, in a way, put on a pedestal of someone else's ideals, the romantic undertones was something he couldn't miss.

"I'm sure it's something the class would find enjoyable," Billy said. He handed her things back to her, before standing up. He smiled at her.

"Thanks." Violet tucked her hair behind her ear once more, fastening her headband so it wouldn't come loose again. "Th-that's very nice of you to say."

"Well, you know Billy," Kimberly said, coming up to the blue ranger's side. She threw her arm around his upper back, gently rubbing it. "He's always been such a nice, caring guy. Any girl would be lucky to have him."

"You're right," Violet agreed.

Billy only smiled throughout the exchange. He was never entirely sure how to react to outright compliments like that. Though he would admit he had been getting more and more female attention since he had taken Jason's martial arts classes as well as some lessons with Trini's Uncle Howard.

He opened his mouth to respond, and then his gaze shifted down the hallway when he noticed Avalon arriving at the Youth Center. She seemed not to have noticed him as she turned her backpack to her look inside it.

"Would you excuse me?" He asked Violet, turning his attention back to her. "I'll, uh; I'll see you in art class."

"Sure, Billy," Violet replied. She clutched her books to her chest, gazing dreamily up at him.

Billy stepped around her and took a deep breath before walking up the hallway towards his friend. "Hey, Ava," he greeted her.

Avalon turned from her locker and gave him a wide smile. "Hey Smurf," she replied. She leaned into him and gave him a hug, which he returned. She pulled back, keeping an arm gently, loosely wrapped around his waist.

"How's your shoulder?" Billy asked. "What'd the doctor say?"

Avalon rolled her eyes. "Physical therapy for a shoulder is not the top of my 'fun things to do' list, yeah?" she admitted. "Especially this one nurse that likes to give me shots, I'm sure she has some sort of sadistic fascination with watching me wince in pain." She ran her free hand through her hair. "Otherwise, I'll be apples."

"That's good," Billy said. "You have ample time for it to heal and you've been diligent about being back to one hundred percent." Reaching up a hand, he rubbed the back of his neck as he gave her a meaningful look.

"What's up, Billy?" Avalon studied him with her eyes.

Billy cleared his throat, lowering his hand from his neck. "Well, we're having another movie night this weekend and it's our turn to host. We just have to figure out which movie it's going to be this time and I thought I'd give you and Kim ample time to argue about it."

"As long as it's anything but that mush of a horror film that Pinkerbell made us watch last time," Avalon said loud enough for the pink ranger to hear.

Knowing their cover was blown, Kimberly let out aloud huff as she walked over to the blue and orange rangers. "It was _Gone with the Wind_!" She exclaimed. "And that's a classic movie! I mean, Tommy liked it." She turned to her boyfriend, who gave her a bright smile in return. When she turned away, Tommy shook his head.

"And I'm surprised _I_ wasn't _Gone with the Wind_ of my snoring," Avalon shot back. She exchanged a smirk with Billy, who pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. "Now, if this topic of conversation is over, I bet the rest of you are dying to hear how my shoulder's doing."

"I'm glad it's feeling better," Billy said. He could tell she was doing her best to act all nonchalant about their situation and that was something he thought was funny about the orange range. She could handle attention well and was good at getting her way, but when it was something she didn't find to be a big deal or knew it'd bring her emotions into, she would downplay it as much as she could.

"Me too," she said.

"Now _I'm_ interested in this," Aisha said, popping up at the rangers' side as Kimberly had just watched the two of them interact with each other, a big smile on her face. Her eyes shifted back and forth as the blue and orange rangers continued to talk.

"Me too!" Kimberly agreed. She and the yellow ranger looped their arms through Avalon's and started to drag her backwards down towards the girls' locker room. "So, tell us everything! I want to know every last detail."

"How about we start with _not_ wearing down the rubbers of my shoes," Avalon protested. Rocky, Adam, and Tommy, and Billy laughed as they watched the girls. "Hey boofheads, I just got told by the doctor that I can't lift for a few days. So unless you want to injure me even more…" Avalon pointed in the opposite direction where the boys were standing."

"Oh yeah."

"Woops."

The pink and yellow rangers let go of the orange ranger and smiling, the three of them walking back over to the boys. "I'm sure that didn't help my shoulder much," Avalon said, rolling it as she walked along.

"As long as you follow the rules the doctor gave you and continue to ice it, it should heal properly," Billy said.

"Speaking of which." Avalon slipped her backpack off her shoulders and held it out to him. "I'm not supposed to carry a lot of weight and I figured you wouldn't mind holding this for me." She gave him a sweet smile.

Billy watched her sweet expression for a moment, feeling his cheeks flush, then chuckled and took the backpack from her as Rocky noted, "He doesn't really have a choice in the matter does he?"

"No," Avalon said simply. She laughed along with the rangers and fell in step with them as they headed off to the workout floor. She fell into step beside Billy and looped her arm through his, hesitating a moment before bringing her hand down and lacing her fingers through his.

"Well, finally!" Rocky declared, throwing his hands in the air. "At least we get something!"

"Leave them alone, Rocko," Aisha said. She walked over to the red ranger and gently shoved him on the shoulder, propelling him backwards.

Rocky's eyes widened in disbelief as Adam chuckled. "Who was the one that was just dragging her down the hallway?"

"That's different!"

"How?"

Billy smiled, exchanging a knowing glance with Tommy; both having the same thought of how easily excitable and rambunctious the new rangers were with every little thing. Sure, things had been awkward when they had first replaced Jason, Trini, and Zack, but at least they were getting used to each other and working well as a team when the time came.

Tommy, Rocky, and Adam went off to get some practice pads so that they could practice martial arts, Aisha went to lift weights, and Kimberly started to get the gymnastics equipment put together. Billy walked Avalon over to the table the rangers usually occupied and let go of her hand. He handed over her backpack and smiled at her again as she sat down before he went to join the other boys.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Violet looking at him. Billy turned to her and she smiled, cheeks flushing, and turned away.

Billy smiled back and turned away as well.

If only he knew the sort of trouble he had just gotten himself in to. Because not only was Violet watching him but she was seething with anger.

Did she _really_ see Billy walking into the youth center holding hands with Avalon? Weren't they just friends? Well, Billy _did _stand her up for a date to the movies. He hadn't said anything about it either. No phone call to set up a different day to go out, no apology, nothing. But she understood, he was probably still reeling from the loss of his mother and was taking any sort of comfort he could get.

She could understand that.

Billy would never try to purposefully hurt her or anyone. She knew that. He was always sweet that way. That's what she really liked about him.

It was something he was going to like about her too.

* * *

**A/N: **Eh, my first chapters are always short. This was an idea I got off of a dream I had, actually, and I realized it would work well for Billy and Violet, so here you go. This story is centered on Billy and Violet, so working from their heads shall be pretty interesting.

I hope you guys liked the first chapter.

**~Avalon**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 02**

* * *

Violet glanced at her watch and let out a dreamy sigh.

Not much longer until she went to the Movie Theater and 'accidentally' bumped into Billy. After he had reacted well to her newest sculpture—a tea set—she knew he would ask her out again. It was going to happen soon, she was sure of it. Not only was he a shy person, but he was starting to come out of his shell, she could see that. He had changed from his constant overalls—which she thought were totally adorable—and had even changed from his glasses to his contacts. It showed off his handsome face even more and she had fallen for him all over again when she had first seen him after the change.

That's what had inspired her to do that sculpture of him as a ranger. Sure, she could've kept the glasses on, but that wasn't the new him, that wasn't how he was anymore. He already had all of the qualities in a ranger that she thought was possible, but he had seemed to increase his confidence levels after having changed and knew for sure that he was right for it. She had been excited to see his reaction when she unveiled the project. Of course, though, she had noticed how uncomfortable he had been with the power rangers sculpture she made of him—it was so cute—she didn't want him to feel like that again.

However, other than saying he thought her execution of a tea pot was admirable; he hadn't done anything other than smile at her, giving her butterflies. Like always. She waited the rest of the class period for him to say something but he focused his attention on the rest of the class as they showed off their artwork. She scowled when she saw how much attention he had given Kimberly and her painting of a field of flowers.

_They were just stupid flowers. Anyone could paint flowers_, Violet had thought as she sat across the room and watched. It was hard work that made a tea set complete with a teapot, cups, plates, saucers, _and _spoons. But that was OK; he had already given his approval of it that was all she needed. When class ended she gathered her things together and made sure that she walked behind the boys, listening to their conversation.

Adam and Tommy had asked him about the movie they were going to watch that night and Violet felt nothing but excitement. So he _had _remembered! She ran home to get ready and had been at work for the past couple of hours making sure she was perfect.

Now she sat in front of her mirror, putting on the finishing touches of her makeup. A quick swipe of blush here and a twirl of mascara there and she was done. Reaching over towards her glasses, Violet hesitated. Should she wear them? She always thought her eyes were prettier without the round pieces of glasses covering her baby blues.

What would he think?

"Billy, do you like my eyes better with or without my glasses?" She asked the cutout picture that was sitting in a frame on her bedside table. She had his single picture as the president of the science club in the yearbook and cut it out as soon as she had seen it. It was perfect; his charming smile and eyes only for her. The cut out picture didn't reply, but Violet reacted as if it had, giggling lightly as she moved her hand over her mouth. "My eyes are beautiful either way? That's so sweet of you to say."

Turning away from the picture, Violet stood up from her seat and checked out her outfit in the mirror. She smoothed over her blouse and skirt, made sure her heels were on tight, and then picked up her purse. She slung it over her shoulder and walked out of her room.

"Mom, Dad, I'm going to the movies," she called, hurrying to the front door.

"Tell Billy we say 'hi'," Mr. McKinley called from the living room, where a sports game was blasting from the TV. There were a few grunting sounds and Violet rolled her eyes, easily able to picture her father leaning back and forth on the couch, as if on a roller coaster ride, getting too into the game.

"I will," Violet promised. She had her hand on the doorknob and had it opened, but was stopped by her mother calling her name. With an impatient sigh, Violet turned around to face her mother as she stood in the doorway from the kitchen. Violet flashed her an innocent smile, tilting her head to the side. "I'm going to be late, Mom. Billy's waiting for me. I promise we'll be back by my curfew."

Mrs. McKinley gave her a daughter a worried look, her arms loosely crossed. "Honey, you've been going out with Billy for a while now," she said, voice tinged with light concern. Violet immediately heard it and thought quickly, hoping to find a way to get her off her back. _Can't she see that she's keeping me from him?_

Despite her anxiety, Violet tilted her head forward, allowing her hair to cover her face. "I know," she murmured. "It's just…" she reached up, brushing her hair from her face. "He makes me happy. I like to spend time with him."

"I can see that." Ms. McKinley chuckled. "Sweetie, you've been going out with him almost every weekend for the past four months." She regarded her daughter carefully. "You two must be getting serious."

Violet nodded.

"So when are we going to get a chance to meet him?" Mrs. McKinley pressed. She walked closer to her daughter and smoothed her hair back out of her face. "I want to know what it is about the boy that makes me daughter smile so much, that caused her to come out of her shell." She gave her daughter a loving smile. "You were always so shy, so introverted. It's great to see you this way, now."

Violet's eyes widened as she lifted her head. Her hair fanned back away from her face, revealing her stricken expression. "M-meet him?" She repeated. "You want to meet him?"

"I'd want to meet anyone that makes my daughter smile as much as you've been, sweetie." Mrs. McKinley was more than anxious to meet her daughter's boyfriend, she was excited. Her daughter had always been painfully shy; hiding behind her mother when being introduced to new people, only speaking when being spoken to, and when she did speak; her voice was always light and airy as if she were off in her own dreamland. Then, when she had become interested in boys, she started to turn a bit more into herself, but always looking at the boys that crossed her path with a longing expression.

Mrs. McKinley had tried to get her daughter to push out of her shell. She had tried to set her up on dates with sons of her friends, people she knew at work, even waiters at restaurants and still her daughter was more preoccupied with the science experiments and math homework she could get done. There was always something about tinkering with different elements that had managed to put a bright smile on her face. Anyone that had been able to break through her shell and have her open up so much must've been someone very special.

Turning her head away, Violet gently rolled her eyes. She knew it was bound to happen at some point, she just never expected it to come this quickly. OK, so maybe she had jumped the gun on telling her parents about him a little bit. But it was just so that they wouldn't think she was some sort of friendless loser or something. _They think you're such a social butterfly, now, _Violet thought. _I just want them to be happy._

"Violet?"

Violet turned back to her mother, turning on the charm. "You'll meet him soon, I promise. We just…don't think it's the right time yet." She moved forward and wrapped her lithe arms around her mother. "I mean…especially after what happened to his mother. He, uh, he wanted me to meet her before she passed."

Nodding, Mrs. McKinley fell silent and Violet turned away, as if trying to shield her own pain and torment. It had hurt, actually, to hear that she had been murdered by those crazy monsters that attacked the school. She could see the pain on Billy's face at the funeral and wanted so hard to go over and comfort him but knew it wasn't the right time. He'd probably push her away rather than allow himself to be taken in her open arms. No, she had to wait.

"It might be a bit hard for him, right now, to meet you guys. To know that, I'm still happy with my parents and he's…" she trailed off and Violet moved forward and gave her mother a gentle kiss not he cheek. "I'm going to be late if I don't leave now. I don't want to keep him waiting."

"Why didn't he come to pick you up?"

"Because he had to finish up a science experiment and I don't mind driving. Bye Mom. Tell Daddy I said 'bye'. I'll be home at about eleven or so." She slipped out of the door and hurried to her car before her mother could ask her any more questions.

Sitting behind her wheel, Violet gritted her teeth in annoyance before bashing her fists against the steering wheel. Then she leaned forward and rested her forehead against it, trying to collect her thoughts. _Okay, Violet, don't panic. This doesn't mean they have to meet him anytime soon; they just want to meet him at some point. And by then he'll realize that he really does want t be with me. That we really are meant to be together. Don't ruin it now._

It took a few minutes for her to calm down, for her breathing to return to normal. She just had to remind herself that she was going to the movies that she was going to see Billy. That she was going to ne with the person that made her happy. A smile slid across her face as genuine butterflies erupted in her stomach. Somehow he was the only one that managed to give her butterflies so badly. Not even the wait to see if she won a science competition got her so riled up. Turning on her car, Violet quickly peeled out of the driveway and drove to the movie theater. Once she arrived she saw that Billy wasn't there.

_I must be early. _She looked at her watch. _Plenty of time to freshen up a bit._

* * *

"So what movie are we going to watch?" Bailey asked as she sat on the arm of the couch, facing Billy as he repositioned the couches along the room. "Fred and I just saw _Die Hard with a Vengeance _at the theatre. It's really good. We can watch one of the prequels."

Billy chuckled as he sat up straight, moving over to the chair on the other side of the room. "I'll take your word for it," he said to her. He paused after having finished arranging all of the furniture so that it was placed around the TV at the best angles so that everyone could see. "I just hope Dad doesn't mind that we're having everyone over."

Bailey tilted her head to the side. "As much as it sucks, Billy, I don't think David minds a lot of things as of late. Besides, if you're worried about him catching you and Av cuddling on the couch I don't think it'll be a problem. I'm sure he and Lacey already thought you were dating." At the blue ranger's embarrassed smile, the purple ranger Bailey smirked at him easily resembling her sister. "Oh come on, we all saw it coming before you two even did."

"Be that as it may, I'm not sure how they'd react to know that we're dating when we're living together." He paused. "If…we _are_ dating…I don't know."

"I'm not much smarter than you, Billy, and even I know you two are dating."She looked at him curiously. "You were never really like this when you were with Trini," she pointed out.

"That's because I didn't have to worry about getting beaten up at a moment's notice."

"I heard that," Avalon snapped as she walked into the room, carrying a large bowl of popcorn. She crossed her arms over her chest. "So I might be a bit rambunctious, but I wouldn't do that." She stuck her tongue out at her sister before continuing. "Besides I don't think David would be able to handle going to another hospital." She lightly ran her fingers over a raised spot on her shoulder. "Neither would I for that matter."

Bailey nodded.

"Besides, he's already asleep," Avalon remarked. "Which is just as well because as soon as Rocky gets here you know things are going to be less than quiet, especially since he's going to somehow, find a way to get Kim _and _Aisha pissed off at him."

Billy laughed along with the girls and went back into the kitchen to get the rest of the food and drinks that were needed for when the rest of the rangers arrived at the house. Though he knew it was only a matter of time until he had to get more, due to Rocky's big appetite. Walking into the kitchen, Billy picked up a stack of cups and a 2 liter bottle of soda. He started to walk back into the living room but stopped when a picture on the refrigerator caught his eye. Glancing at it, he let out a breath, shoulders slumping as he caught sight of a picture of himself and his mother. It had to have been taken shortly after he couldn't figure out how to put her vacuum back together judging by the irritated look in her eyes although she as smiling.

In fact, he was sure she had that look a lot whenever he was doing his own experiments, creating a mess almost every time.

Lowering his gaze, Billy walked into the living room and continued setting up the food and drinks and looked down as Avalon and Bailey sat on the floor with videos sitting around them. "Did you choose anything yet?"

"Not yet," Bailey said. "At the moment Av's trying to hide the romance movies from Kim. And I don't want to have to watch more Stephen King films so…"

"You don't know what you're missing," Billy said to her. "Stephen King not only is one of the greatest writers of all time, but the movies that were created off of his books are a great homage to his work. Just ignore the fact that he had a twisted mind and you can really appreciate the thoughts put into it."

"I'll take your word for it, Billy," Bailey said. She turned to her sister and made the crazy sign by the side of her head, causing the orange ranger to laugh.

Shaking his head, Billy placed the rest of the food and drinks on the table beside the couch. "Times like these I'm glad that Tommy's family is the one adopting you." He turned at the sound of the doorbell ringing and could hear Rocky and Aisha arguing about something through the door.

Avalon popped to her feet and headed towards the door, only stopping to jump onto the arm of the couch so that she was tall enough to lean over and surprise Billy with a kiss on the cheek. "Trust me, Smurf, you're not the only one," she remarked before jumping to the floor and hurrying to the door. She pulled it open and stood back to allow the rangers inside. "You should be happy to know that you Olivers have no competition in trying to adopt us," she remarked to Tommy, placing her free hand on her hip.

Tommy laughed and gave her a quick hug. "That's good to know." He then moved aside so that Kimberly could give her best friend a crushing hug. "I'm sure Mom and Dad would be glad to hear the news."

The orange ranger nodded and motioned to Rocky and Aisha, who continued to have their heated discussion. "So what are those blokes arguing about?"

Fred, who had been standing by the door with Adam spoke up as he took off his shoes. "Rocky invited Kat to come watch the movie with us, and Aisha is kind of ticked because she says that he had no manners and can't just invite people without asking and blah bah blah." He waved a hand. "Personally, I think they're fighting over nothing."

"That's what girls do best, Fred, you should get used to it," Adam remarked, placing his hand on the young boy's shoulders. He waited for Kat to come through the door before closing the door behind them. Kat stood in the doorway, looking around at the rangers before looking down at her feet, almost bashfully.

"I hope you don't mind that I came along," she said. "Rocky invited me and he said it'd be okay."

"It's okay," Billy said, coming up behind his friends with a warm smile. He put his hands in his jeans pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. "The more the merrier. Just as long as you don't mind there being an inevitable fight about what genre of movie we watch. Though that can be just as entertaining as the movie itself. Come on in, but please leave your shoes by the door and try not to be too loud, my Dad's asleep." He gave a pointed look to the red and yellow rangers.

"What are you looking at me for?" Rocky and Aisha harmonized.

"C'mon, you guys bicker like it's your job, he's only asking for you to cool it for one night," Adam said. He grinned at his two best friends before taking off his shoes and following Billy into the living room. He flopped down onto the couch and grabbed the bowl of popcorn, seconds before it was taken away by Rocky. "Hey!"

"Hey, yourself. I need the energy after trying to prove that I'm _not _as selfish as _someone _thinks I am," he said and stuck his tongue out at Aisha, who dropped down on the couch on his other side. The yellow ranger stuck her tongue out in reply.

"I call em' as I see em', don't let me hurt you boy!" Aisha said and then picked up the pillow that was tucked under her arm and hit him over the head with it. The two then burst out into laughter and settled into the couch. "So, what are we watching tonight?"

"You've got a choice between Candyman, Reservoir Dogs, Home Alone 2, A League of Their Own, Mighty Ducks, or Poison Ivy," Avalon announced, moving through the VHS tapes that sat in front of her, fanned out in a circle.

"Wow, Billy, you have a very widespread taste in movies," Kat remarked as she looked over the movies herself. She glanced up at the blue ranger who raised an eyebrow before pointing over to Avalon and Bailey. The new girl giggled. "You should've just said they were yours. I'm sure a lot of girls would like to know you have things that they'd want to watch."

"Or it just means that you're hiding your feminine side," Rocky commented and he and Adam snickered.

"Whatever," Kimberly broke in. She looked over the movies before pointing at one. "What about _A League of Their Own? _I heard it's a really good movie." She then curled up on Tommy's lap as he sat down in the chair. She rested her head on his shoulder as he moved his arm around her waist.

"Got it." Fred took the movie and started to put it into the VHS player as the rest of the group settled themselves down onto the couch and the floor. As Billy sat down on the floor next to Avalon, moving to lean back against the couch, he paused and leaned forward.

_What the…_? His blue-green eyes scanned the foliage around the window of the living room. The wind gently blew the leaves across the face of the window pane, a branch lightly tapping at the window. Shadow danced amongst the shifting of the leaves. _I could've sworn I saw…_

"Is something wrong, Billy?" Bailey's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

Leaning back against the couch, the blue ranger shook his head. "I just thought I saw something," he replied. "It's okay. I'm sure it was nothing." Bringing a knee up, he focused his attention on the TV as the movie started up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 03**

* * *

"I can't believe he didn't show up," Violet murmured to herself as she placed her books into her locker. "We had these plans and he didn't show…" brining her head forward, she rested it on the shelf of her locker. Letting in a deep breath, she slowly let it out through her teeth, allowing her shoulders to slump as she relaxed. That wasn't the part that really hurt, that he said he would go and hadn't shown up.

No, what hurt worse was going over to his house later, to be sure nothing was wrong. Maybe he had a hit of depression and couldn't get himself out of bed. Maybe he needed some cheering up. But no. She had peered into the window of his house and saw him and his friends sitting around the couches and chairs, watching whatever movie was showing on the TV. She had looked directly at him, and then ducked out of the way as Billy went to look at her.

He didn't need to see her so low, peeping in through his windows. No, that would be too creepy. It would make it so that he couldn't trust her that he wouldn't want to be around her. So, instead, she drove around for a while, trying to wrap her mind about why he had lied to her, then went back home. She rolled her eyes in irritation as soon as she stepped through the door and her mother called out to her, "Violet? Sweetie, is that you?"

"Yes, Mom," Violet called back.

"You're home kind of early." Violet could hear her mother get off of the couch and head towards the front door. "Did something happen? Was there a problem at the movies?"

"No, Mom, no problem at all," Violet replied. She kept a straight face as her mother rounded the corner and walked over to her. "The movie was a bust, I said I don't like action films and it was the only thing that wasn't sold out." She shrugged. "We tried it out and I couldn't take much more explosions and guns going off so we left early, walked around a bit, talked, and came back here."

_At least, that's what would've happened if he had shown up, _Violet thought, now shifting back to the present. _It would've been so nice. Strolling along the water, holding hands…kissing… _a blush slid upon Violet's face as she closed her locker and turned, leaning against it. She bit her lower lip as she thought about it. The smile on his face as he leaned in to kiss her, the bright light illuminated in his eyes…it was enough to make her knees go weak just by thinking of it. "It would've been perfect," she murmured again.

"Is that smile on your face because you had a perfect date last night or what?" Violet looked to the side to see her friend, Alyssa Kramer walking her way. She leaned on the locker next to her friend and smiled up at her. "Was the man of your dreams as dreamy as ever?"

Violet giggled with her friend, brushing her hair out of her face. "Yes," she said. "It sucks that we have to keep it a secret, through," she said and pouted. "I'd love to be able to go through the halls, holding hands and showing everyone else that little Violet McKinley has a boyfriend."

"Oh, c'mon Mouse, it's not a big deal," Alyssa said, patting her friend on the shoulder. "You've really come in on your own. There's no way that you're the same mousy little girl that you were when we started high school." She tilted her head to the side and looked up at her friend. "And people are really starting to see that. I think you need to take matters in your own hands and make sure that it's not questioned again."

"And how do you propose I do that?" Violet asked. She looked over at her friend and noticed the mischievous glint in her eye. "What? Lyssa, don't look at me like that." She watched as Alyssa continued to grin before turning and looking down the hall, where she spotted Billy at his locker.

"Why don't you go over and plant one on the guy? I mean, you've been going out with him for the last four months, almost half a year. And I've seen _nothing _in the PDA department from you two. I need my fix somehow considering I'm not living it."

"We can always set you up with someone," Violet pointed out. "I mean, there has to be someone around this school that you like."

"Sadly, Jason Scott left last year and now I'm without the eye candy that I was hoping for to get through his semester," Alyssa sighed. "Otherwise, my attention is now focused on you, girl. I need to live vicariously through you. So go get your man."

Violet smiled before chewing her lower lip. She had managed to keep her secret as long as she could but knew it was bound to come out in the open at some point. _I just have to make sure that it's not a secret, a real thing…_she followed Alyssa's gaze down the hallway and watched, suddenly scowling when she noticed Avalon come up on Billy's side and poke him in the shoulder before ducking around to his other side just as Kimberly came flying towards the girl and wrapped her arms around the her neck.

"And you better do it fast," Alyssa continued. "Before some other girls start to move in on him. I don't mean to worry you, babe, but the guy has dated ever since he got into high school and, frankly, I'm not surprised he and Trini didn't work out. They were just too different and didn't have a lot of chemistry. Not only are you two the smartest kids in class, but you're probably in the run for being co-valedictorian by the end of the year."

"Well…" Violet hesitated. _No, I can't do this. Not right now. _Not when there was a good chance everything would be revealed…ruined before she could actually get her claws in the guy. Not that it mattered much, no one really paid much attention to her, even though she had changed a lot since the earlier years of high school.

"Nope. No 'ifs', 'ands' or 'buts' about this situation. You're going over there right now or else I'll kick your butt the whole way." Alyssa placed her hands on her friend's shoulders and pushed her towards the rangers. "Now go."

Violet stumbled and brought her backpack up over her shoulder. She glanced back at her friend, who continued to wave her on, and took a deep breath before going over to Billy. He was leaning against his locker, listening as Kimberly explained something to him, her arm still around Avalon's shoulders.

"And you don't think that you're jumping the gun on preparing for prom?" Avalon asked, flicking her hair out of her face. "I mean, I get you lot are excited for senior year and everything, but even I think this is ridiculous."

"There's some sound advice in the fact that we're starting our preparation this early," Billy pointed out with a shrug. "That way we can be sure that we have loose ends tied up, money in with the treasurer…"

"And to _please_ not have a lame theme," Avalon broke in.

"Hey, the student life committee is doing our best," Kimberly defended herself. "I mean, Aisha's hand out flyers to help get more students involved, I have Tommy going to the teachers and seeing if they can give some small donations, and Rocky and Adam are going to make sure we have the equipment and everything is rented ahead of time and—"

"—and I'd rather scoop my eyeballs out with a rusty spoon than help with any of it," Avalon said once the pink ranger set her sights on him. "Not only am I going to be busy with all of my art work,"—she shook her sketchpad in front of her—"but I'm also going to be a bit busy with my singing classes."

"You have a great voice, Av," Kim said. "I'm surprised that you hadn't done it before."

"Yeah, it'd be good to see you exhibit some of your other talents," Billy agreed. "Apart from your sarcasm, wit, and massive need to be right about everything to the point it can be confused for aggression." He laughed as Avalon punched him on the arm.

"Anyway, we have some things we need to get dome before home room," Kimberly said, looping her arm through Avalon's. "We'll see you later." She dragged the pink ranger off away from the blue ranger as Violet walked up to him. He looked at her and smiled as he opened his locker.

"Hi Billy," Violet greeted him, moving to the side so that she didn't get hit by the metal door. She tucked her hair behind her ear as the blue ranger took some books out of his backpack and closed his locker door once more.

"Hi Violet," he replied cheerfully. "You enjoying the beginning of the year?"

"Oh yeah, I think I'm one of the few people that actually _enjoys _coming back to school," she said. Lowering her hands down to the straps of her backpack and gently rocked herself back and forth. "Besides you, I mean. Have to get those grades for valedictorian, right?"

"Right, you're my competition for it, aren't you?" Billy pointed out. "We've been getting the same grades for years. I hope you don't mind that I'm going to give you a good run for your money." He started to walk down the hallway, motioning for Violet to follow him. "I don't plan on just giving up my spot as valedictorian."

"You're going to have a worthy opponent then," Violet said, suddenly filled with gusto. "I don't plan on giving up so easily."

"Then may the best man win." Billy held out his hand. Violet smiled and took his hand in hers, shaking it firmly. A lightning bolt shot through her hand and up her arm at the contact and she could feel her face blush even more. "So are you excited for another year of science and math club? We have more funds in each of them so that we're able to do more things. Like…we could make that working rocket ship."

"Don't you think that's a bit tired?" Violet asked. "Kind of like a vinegar and baking soda volcano," she said. Billy gave her an amused look, eyebrows rising as he watched her. Violet looked away, thinking for a minute. "We need to do something that won't be as obvious. Like a breakthrough in the physics world. Or some sort of experiment that we can have the students of Angel Grove High to be out test subjects, or…" she continued to think about it and then in her excitement, grabbed onto Billy's arm. "Building our own working computer!"

Billy thought for a moment before looking over at her. "A working computer?"

"Think about it, Billy!" Violet moved to stand in front of him. "Not only is it something that not many schools in the area would have done before, but it would be something that'll give the school enough grant money to get to the National Science Conference in May," she pointed out. "I mean, I know it's far away from now and everything, but just think that we could represent Angel Grove high in a new way if we did this."

"No, I get what you mean," Billy agreed. "I was just thinking of how it would work out," he said. "Not only are the parts hard to come by, but there's also the electronic properties in general that we have to think through."

"All the more reason to do it! You're a scientist, Billy, and a good one at that," Violet added. She then lowered her voice, looking up at him through her bangs. "I don't know anyone else that could handle running the club like you do."

"Well that's quite a compliment," Billy smiled down at her. "Thank you, Violet." He looked at his watch. "Ah, I'm going to be late. I have to talk to Mr. Kaplan about some things, but I'll think more about what you said. If it's possible, we can get all the gear, and then start building the thing." He started to move away and Violet felt his arm slip out of her grasp and she looked down, noticing she was still holding onto him.

She quickly brought her hand back and clasped her hands together as Billy gave her a quick wave and continued down the hall at a light jog, causing his blonde hair to bounce as he went. Violet sucked in a deep, dreamy breath as she watched Billy turn the corner and disappear from sight. She hadn't noticed that Alyssa was still around until she felt an arm go around her shoulders and looked to the side to see her best friend standing by her.

"What did I tell you?" Violet asked, lifting her chin.

"You two are so cute together," Alyssa said. "I'm sorry I doubted you. He's super cute, very hot even. I wish I got to him before you did."

Violet elbowed Alyssa in the side hard enough to knock her friend off her side, her arm dropping in the movement as well. "Ow! Vi!"

"He's mine, alright?" Violet's eyes flashed as she turned to her friend. "And no one else is gonna have him but me." She turned away from her best friend and went to her class. Sliding into her seat, she didn't look up as Alyssa walked in and took her seat behind her. A second later she felt Alyssa poke her in the back.

"Vi, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to go after him or anything. I was just kidding." Violet didn't reply. "C'mon, this is silly to get mad about. I know he's yours and only yours. I don't want this to get between us. You're my best friend, Vi."

Violet let out a sigh and sat up straight. She slightly angled her head to the side so that she could continue speaking to her friend but not bring too much attention to herself in case the teacher was watching. "I guess I can't get mad at you over something as small as this," she said. "I mean, Billy and I love each other. So not even you can break us up." She smiled at Alyssa before turning back to her notebook, writing Billy's name in the corner before drawing a heart around it.

_Billy and Violet forever._

* * *

**A/N: **Chapters after this will get longer.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 04**

* * *

"So then you'd have to carry these numbers over and then you'll have the means to complete the equation and get the answer you're looking for," Billy instructed Rocky.

The red ninja ranger leaned forward and looked over his notebook for a moment before nodding and scribbling along the numbers and figures that were spread across the page. Then he grinned and leaned back in his seat, pointing triumphantly at his notebook. "So that means that the answer is 35.7x"

"Exactly!" Billy agreed. "See, I told you you'd get this. You're not in the advanced math class for nothing." He set his notebook aside and leaned back in his seat, pulling his smoothie back with him. "So what if some of the work doesn't come as naturally to you as the rest of it did."

"Says the brains of the operation," Rocky shot back. He looked around the Youth Center longingly before turning back to the books that were stacked next to them. "Wish we didn't have so much work to do. I could get a workout done right now. Or teach a class." He then turned back to Billy who had opened his history notebook and started on that homework. "Man, how do you do it?"

"Do what?" He looked up over the top of the textbook, blue-green eyes alight with amusement.

"How are you so good at school? I mean, while the rest of us struggle with nearly everything in the world, you can breeze through them in seconds if not minutes. You finish a test faster than anyone else in the class and from I've heard, you freak out over getting anything less than an 'A'."

Billy chuckled as he turned the page, briefly scanning the latest chapter of European History that was assigned for that night. "I don't know," he said honestly. "I've just always been interested in learning as much as I could. Then again it probably didn't help that by the time I was seven I had taken apart, cleaned, and put back together my mother's vacuum just because I wanted to know how it worked. And that's not including all of the different experiments I've managed to cook up in my own bathroom sink, too."

"Something tells me your parents weren't particularly happy with that," Rocky remarked.

"You'd be right." Billy sighed, eyebrows coming together for a minute. "But Mom and Dad have always supported me with it. When I wasn't sticking things in the electrical socket to see how conduction worked out. They were _not _happy with that one." He looked up and nodded as the rest of the rangers came in through the door of the Youth Center, Kimberly and Aisha practically skipping as they went. "Looks like someone's having a good day."

"Looks like I finally get a break," Rocky corrected him, pushing his books aside. "Hey guys, what's up?" He greeted his friends as they sat down around them. "Is there any reason that you two are bouncier than usual?" At the strange looks Kimberly, Aisha, and Avalon gave him, Rocky thought for a moment before saying. "Ignore that, I'm sure I just offended you some way by saying that."

Tommy laughed as Aisha said, "good boy," before sitting up straight. She looked around the table, a bright smile on her face. "I just got the news that my Aunt is coming to town. And she's going to take me on a tour of USC, because she's an alumnus of the school." Reaching over, she hugged Avalon then Kimberly to her sides. "And she said that us girls can stay the whole weekend so we can get the college experience."

"That's awesome, guys!" Adam said. "It sounds like it'll be a lot of fun."

"Aww." Bailey frowned as she sank lower in her seat. "I wish I could go. That sounds like fun."

"You have plenty of time before going off to college, Bay, don't rush it," Tommy reminded her. "Trust me; you want to stay a kid as long as you can. It's the best part of life." The purple ranger shrugged and he reached out and ruffled her hair before she ducked out of the way and batted his hands away, starting a play fight between the two of them. Tommy spoke to the girls over his slap-fight with Bailey. "So is that where you're going to go, Aisha?" He asked her. "To USC?"

"I haven't decided," Aisha replied, moving her braids behind her shoulders. "My Aunt is an alumni and she said she loved it. But there are some other places I'd like to go see. I mean, I still want to become a vet, so I might just go to school specifically for that and USC wouldn't really help." She turned then turned to Avalon and Kimberly. "What about you guys? Have you decided?"

"Gymnastics is for me," Kimberly said firmly. "No doubt about it. I'd really like to be a coach or something, though. Seeing those little kids run and jump around is so cute." She swooned, leaning back against Aisha before turning her attention to Avalon. "What about you, Av?"

"Dunno," she said dismissively, bringing a hand up to her mouth and gently chewing on the fingernail.

"It's okay if you don't know if school is good for you," Adam reminded her. "It's not for everyone and not only that, but there are still those that manage to make a great living for themselves when they didn't attend college."

"I meant I don't know if I'm going to go to school here or back in Aus," Avalon quickly corrected him. "But either way, I don't want to talk about it." She cleared her throat before changing the subject. "How do you guys feel about going to the beach this weekend?" She asked. "And I don't mean just going down to the beach, I mean taking a beach vacation." She exchanged a glance with Bailey before addressing the whole table. "Our Mum is coming into town and she says she doesn't mind renting out a beach house for all of us."

"That's awesome!" Rocky declared, eyes immediately lighting up. "I'm so there!"

"Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun," Tommy agreed. He laughed as Bailey finally shoved him away from him away from her before turning to the table as well. "Is there anything we need to bring? Food or anything?"

"Yeah, we're going to have to bring up the tucker and some linens and stuff, other than that, Mum has everything covered," Bailey agreed. She tucked her hair behind her ear as she thought for a moment. "It's not until next month or so, to go for a long weekend. And Mum said that she'd like to get to know you guys better."

"I don't know," Billy finally said, turning the attention to him. He nervously drummed his pencil against the paper of his notebook. "I don't think it'd be a good idea if Dad was there by himself for that long." He shrugged. "I mean, he's been back at work, but nights aren't the best for him."

"I was thinking of that and why don't we bring him along?" Avalon suggested. "My Mum's a registered nurse and if there's anything he has problems with or needs to talk about, she'll be there to help out." She then quickly backtracked. "I'm not saying that there _is _anything wrong, he is grieving the way he chooses to, but so that he won't be completely alone."

"That's a good idea; actually, I'll ask him." Billy then looked at his watch. "Do you need a ride to work?"

"I do, actually. I only dropped Bay off so she could get in some quality time with her brother and stop bugging me half to death," Avalon commented. She reached over and placed her hand on Tommy's shoulder. "Good luck with that, Bro." She then turned back to the purple ranger. "And make sure he gets you back on time. I trust your time management more than his."

"Hey!" Tommy cried in protest.

"I'll be fine, Av," Bailey reminded her. "You're looking at the girl that singlehandedly managed to defeat Ivan Ooze without your guys' help so I think I can take care of myself." Smugly, she crossed her arms over her chest as the other rangers laughed.

"Something tells me that she's not ever going to let us forget that," Aisha commented with a light shake of her head.

"Something tells me you're right," Adam agreed. He thought for a moment then suggested, "Why don't we invite Kat to come along with us?" He asked. "She's new here and probably wouldn't' have any plans for that weekend."

"You can ask, but who knows what she'll say," Avalon pointed out. "The place is big anyway, so it's not like the space will be a problem. I just hope she doesn't mind that there might not be anything to eat if Rocky gets to it all first." She lightly flicked him on the ear and then waved to her friends. "I'll see you guys later. Tommy, don't forget to bring her back."

"Geez, I make that mistake once and I'm branded for life," Tommy said with a roll of his eyes.

"Don't worry, Av, I'll make sure he doesn't forget this time," Kimberly reassured the orange ranger. "I'll watch him like a hawk."

"I don't doubt it, Pinkerbell." Avalon laughed and stepped back away from the table as Kimberly took Billy's leftover smoothie and mimed throwing it at her. "Hoo roo." She waved to her friends before following Billy out of the Youth Center and to his truck. Billy climbed into the driver's seat as Avalon tossed her backpack into the trunk and rounded the side to the passenger seat.

He started up the truck and headed towards the bookstore that Avalon had gotten a job at the year before, after working hard to turn herself around from her former gang lifestyle. He had been pleasantly surprised to hear that she had managed to get employment, especially after everything she had done had been released to public knowledge as part of her plea deal with the police so that she wouldn't get a harsh sentence when confessing to her crimes. Her work and study habits had improved as well and despite some of her personality still being part of the life she had lived before, he could see that she was working hard to turn her life around for her and her sister and he couldn't be any prouder of her.

Pulling up in the parking lot of the bookstore, Billy waited for the orange ranger to get, but was surprised when she unbuckled herself and turned to him saying, "I need to talk to you about something, Smurf."

"Uh-oh, am I in trouble?" He teased. When he noticed she wasn't smiling or laughing, he reached out and twisted the keys in the ignition, turning off the car. "Sounds serious. What's wrong, Ava?"

"I was being serious about your Dad," she said to him, twisting to the side in her seat, bringing her knees up to her chest as she had done back in the Youth Center. "About bringing him down to the beach house. Honestly, Smurf, I think he needs some time away from your house. There's too much of your mother there and if he continues to keep himself stuck around the memories of her day after day, it's not going to help him in the long run."

Billy listened quietly to his best friend but didn't respond otherwise.

"And it's not only him that I'm worried about either," Avalon continued, staring hard at him. "I'm worry about you." Billy raised an eyebrow and Avalon mimicked his movement. "Yes, you," she said, poking him in the shoulder. "I haven't seen you grieve since what happened with your mother happened. You keep going day after day as if nothing is going on and your father is the only focus. If you ever want to talk, you know I'll be there to listen. Trust me; I have a lot of experience of watching people die before their time was up. Some I'm not willing to go into a lot of detail about, but I know what can happen if you don't outwardly express what's going on with you."

Billy shook his head, letting out a quiet sigh. "I'm fine," he insisted.

"I'm sure that you think so, but then at some point you're going to realize that you're not fine." Avalon scratched the side of her head. "I know you, Smurf. I know that you're an Aries, that you were born in Chicago, that your favorite food is guacamole cheeseburger, that you like to help other people as much as you possibly can, that you try to think of a way to outsmart your opponents rather than going straight in for a hard attack. That you have a tiny sense of arrogance that only comes out whenever someone is teasing you, that your natural stance is to hunch your shoulders forward and to stick your hands into your pockets because you like to make yourself appear more in control, probably because Bulk and Skull had picked on you so much when you were little."

Billy looked at her out of the corner of her eye in surprise. He hadn't even thought of that. It was a stance that felt the most comfortable to him, just like Jason's was crossing his arms over his chest and Kimberly's was to place her hands on her hips. Then again, he had always been that way, rather standing back, keeping himself away from the confrontation that was coming up because it wasn't something that he felt needed to happen. Instead, he focused as hard as he could on his schoolwork and on the tests and every experiment he could come up with that peeked his interest. Having gotten to join Mensa due to his intellect had helped him a lot in his endeavors, especially in the want to become one of the world's leading scientists.

"Well if you haven't thought of it, Ava, why don't you go into psychology because your reading of body language is astounding," the blue ranger finally said. Avalon glared at him and he chuckled lightly. "Okay, I didn't mean it to sound _that _sarcastic, Av, but you do have a tendency to push yourself into other people's business."

Avalon sniffed loudly and turned away. "Well, excuse me for caring about my friends." She pushed open the door of the truck and jumped out, nearly disappearing from view when she reached the ground. "I'll see you later." She jumped onto the side of his truck and leaned in to reach her backpack in the flatbed.

Sighing, Billy climbed out of the truck and walked after Avalon as she tugged her hair free from behind her. The blue ranger reached out and grabbed onto the strap of her backpack, propelling Avalon around to face him. "You know that's what I meant, Ava. I'm just…" he looked away for a moment before turning back to her. "I'm fine," he insisted. "Really, I am. I'm just worried about my Dad right now. And, you're right; him getting away from the house is probably the best thing for him right now." He let out a breath. "I mean, I might not be able to convince him, but I know you and Bailey probably could, with a tag-team effort."

"That's what we're here for," Avalon joked. "To make sure we get our way." She gently twisted back and forth as she looked up at him. "Are you _sure_ you're okay, Smurf?" She held up her hands as he shifted his gaze towards the sky. "It'll be the last time I ask, promise."

"I'm fine." Billy insisted. "Don't worry about me." He then nodded towards the building behind them. "You're going to be late for work. I'll see you later for dinner."

"Just as long as it's not a guacamole hamburger, yeah?" The orange ranger's freckled nose wrinkled as her eyes flashed with mischief. "That stuff is disgusting."

"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it." Billy leaned down and gave her a kiss. When he started to pull back, Avalon grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him back to her, kissing him again. He laughed when she pulled back and reached up, ruffling his hair.

"See you." Avalon waved and turned on her heel before hurrying across the parking lot and into the bookstore.

Billy turned and started to go back to his truck then turned when he heard footsteps hurrying behind him and his name called. "Oh, hi Violet!"

"Hi!" Violet hurried across the parking lot and towards him with a bright smile on her face. She glanced over her shoulder towards the bookstore when she had seen the orange ranger duck inside. She was doing her best not to allow the fury she was feeling to come over her face.

Now she knew. Now she knew that there was someone moving in on her territory. Not that she hadn't had to worry about that before, there were always girls around Billy; that dumb bitch Marge, that chick that was Kimberly friend, that deaf girl, Trini, Kimberly….she should've known it was only a matter of time when his 'friends' weren't always going to be his friends. She should've known she had to worry about them at some point. Trini, she could see that coming, they were always together since they had started school together.

Kimberly she had always especially hated. The pretty, popular cheerleader that did nothing but charm people everywhere she went. All she had to do was flutter her eyelashes and she had guys trailing after her in a wake. Enough so that Jason had to pretend to be her boyfriend every now and then as well as Tommy falling under her spell when she first arrived at the school. She had thought one Billy and Trini had broken up that she could slide on in there and her biggest dream would come true. But no. It was like they were all part of a stupid, secret club no one else could be a part of.

_Don't worry, Violet, _she thought. _You'll get in on it soon. Don't let anything ruin your plans._"I was just shopping with my Mom and I saw you over here and couldn't wait to tell you!" She hugged her arms to herself. "I've got a meeting with Mr. Kaplan to see if we can get the materials we need to build that computer. Of course he may need a lot of persuasion but I think I can get him to agree to do it."

"That's awesome, Violet!" Billy said, his eyes lighting up. "It'll definitely give us a good chance to work in our favor if we ask early and give a lot of information to the conferences our project could be entered into."

"Not to mention the publicity it'd bring to the school," Violet agreed.

"That, too," Billy laughed.

Violet smiled as she watched the dimple appear in his cheek. She loved it when he smiled; it reached his whole face rather than just lighting up his eyes. And it was a genuine smile unlike the stretch of the side of the mouth that most boys usually did. She flashed him a smile of her own, taking a step closer to him. "So, why don't you come with me?" She asked him. "To my meeting with Mr. Kaplan? If both of us talk to him, you being the president of the science club, I think we'll have an even greater chance of getting him to agree to it."

"Well, when is it?" Billy placed his hands on his hips as he thought about his schedule. "Kim and I have a lot of things that we need to do for the student life committee and we're meeting up a lot to make sure things go as planned."

_Kimberly, of course. _Violet's face fell into an expression of disgust. _That little snot has her hooks in every boy in the damn school, why can't she just leave one for me? _"I'm sure things'll be okay. I can do it myself." She turned to leave, hiding her face with her wavy hair, making sure he caught sight of the disappointment on her face. "I'll just see you later."

"No, I'd love to come and help you talk to Mr. Kaplan," Billy insisted. "It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I'm pretty busy. Let me know when you're going and I'll make sure that I can clear my schedule so I can go with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. If news spreads around about our project for the club, maybe we'll have more support. Maybe we'll have more people join the club, you never know." He bobbed his head back and forth. "Either that or we'll have a bake sale like everyone else."

"Don't knock bake sales, Billy, they can always bring in a lot of money. And besides, you haven't tried my brownies yet; my Mom and Dad always rave about them." She rolled her eyes. "Then again, they're kind of biased so I guess that doesn't count."

"I'm sure they're very delicious." He smiled politely and looked down at his keys, gently jingling them in his hand. Sensing he was about to leave, Violet started to speak once more, but was cut off when she heard her name being called across the parking lot that time. Eyes widening, Violet turned and spotted her mother walking towards her, pushing a full grocery cart. "Is that your mother?"

"Yeah, like I said we were just doing some shopping," she quickly explained. Turning back to him she pointed over her shoulder. "I guess I should get going. I-I'll see you in school."

Billy glanced down at his communicator as it went off. He then gave Violet a pained smile as he backed towards his truck. "I have to get going, anyway. I'll see you later."

"Bye." Violet gave him a quick finger-wave before turning on her heel and walking back to her mother, eyes flashing. "Mom, I can't believe you did that! You just embarrassed me. Don't call my name like that!"

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I just wanted to meet your boyfriend," Mrs. McKinley said with a tiny smile. "You talk about him all the time. And you've obviously very smitten with him."

Violet rolled her eyes. "No one says 'smitten' anymore, Mom."

"I'm sorry. Can you blame me? I've never seen you so happy before and I'd like to get to know the reason why." She thought for a second. "Why don't you invite him over to dinner sometime? We'd like to meet his parents, er, father, if that's okay with you."

Violet sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. Her gaze was puzzled to the side as she watched a blue streak shoot across the sky and disappear from sight. Letting out a heavy sigh, which sounded more like a huff of indignation, she turned back to her mother. "Soon, okay. I just want to make sure that everything is perfect."

"Perfect? Honey, it's just dinner. We're not asking the President to come or anything." She put her arm around her daughter's shoulders and guided her towards their car. "Now, come help me put away the groceries and we can figure out what we'll have for dinner that night."

Violet smiled as she thought of how impressed her parents would be when they heard all about his accomplishments and saw for themselves how smart he was. All she had to do was make sure that nothing, no other girls, got in her way of that night.

It shouldn't be too hard.

"Sure, Mom," Violet said. "I already have an idea for dessert, too."

* * *

**A/N: **I changed the plot of the story slightly, not so much that it'll detract from what I already had planned, but at least the tone of the story will change so it's not as serious/dark.

Thanks to _I love power rangers7135, brankel1, and Ashley_ for reviewing

**~Avalon**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 05**

* * *

Violet lifted her camera and snapped a quick picture before turning away and pretending to become very engrossed with the back of the little machine. She turned her attention back to Alyssa, who was going on and on about…something, she wasn't sure. But her eyes continued to drift back over towards Billy as he sat with his friends in the cafeteria.

She watched as he said something to Rocky and Adam, who were engrossed in a conversation, before turning back to the notebook that he passed back and forth between himself and Kimberly. Her eyes narrowed and she let out a low growl as she watched the pink ranger reached out her hand and placed it on top of Billy's, a bright smile on her face, before she took the pen and notebook he was handing out to her. At the other side of the table, Avalon, Tommy, and Aisha appeared to be deep in conversation about something.

"Vi, stop." Alyssa's voice caught her attention and she turned back to her friend, eyes wide with innocence. Tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder, she focused her attention on Violet. "You're just torturing yourself now. I mean, how can you stand sitting here and watch your boyfriend with his friends and not get to know them a little?"

_Easy, because I hate them all, _Violet thought, trying to keep from sneering. How _was _she supposed to like them? Not only were they some of the most helpful students in the school, she couldn't ever go a class without hearing about some sort of news that had to do with one of them volunteering about something, but they were just sooo _nice_. They never did anything wrong as far as anyone was concerned.

It was no wonder Bulk and Skull had picked on them for so long. How can anyone stand seeing the 'model' students continue what they did best day after day after day?

"I don't know." Violet shrugged, trying to think of a way to talk herself out of the situation. "They're just so…annoying. We can never get some time alone because they're always around him." She then motioned towards Alyssa. "I mean, you're always with me, but we don't spend every second of every day together." She shook her head. "It's like they're part of a secret club or something."

"But that shouldn't keep you from…" Alyssa trailed off and shook her head as Violet stubbornly ignored her, putting the camera aside and starting to go through the lunch that was on her tray. "Ok, even I know that you don't want to eat anything the cafeteria gives us. It's just too…disgusting."

"I'll say."

Violet giggled and twirled the luke-warm, slightly mushy, spaghetti around on her fork. She tried, once again, to keep her eyes from going over to Billy, but found herself stuck. She couldn't help but watch him. He was just so…beautiful. That was the best word to describe him. His features were soft and in some means slightly feminine and that entranced her just as much as his eyes on her were. His blue-green eyes that seemed to root her in place and make her stomach erupt with a mountain of butterflies all at the same time.

"And why are you taking so many pictures of him, anyway?" Alyssa asked. She reached over and picked up the disposable camera that rested by Violet's belongings. "I mean, you talk about him enough, you're dating him, what's the big—"

Violet glared and pulled the camera back out of her hands. "That's none of your business, Lyssa!" She snapped. "Don't touch my things without asking me first!" Turning, she shoved the camera into her bag before scowling at her friends. "I told you that I'm working on a surprise for him, remember? Don't make this into something it's not."

Alyssa stared at her best friend for a long moment then shook her head. "Okay, Vi. Whatever you say." The two girls went back to their lunch and for a few moments they continued to eat in silence. That was fine with Violet; she just needed some time to clear her head, to figure out what it was she was going to do to make sure Billy noticed her. Noticed her and completely forgot about the other girls that were constantly with him.

_I don't get it, _she thought, eyes going back towards the rangers' table. _I know that he and Avalon live together, everyone knows that. But is there something else going on? He kissed her…_Violet tried to quell the anger that slid over her, causing her to tighten her grip on the fork she continued to twirl in her hand. _Then there's Kimberly. She's always been such a slut. Having guys fall all over her and use them to get her way with things, flirting with them just because she can. Then she turns around and goes after the next guy that comes into the school, working hard to make sure no one else can have him. _Violet's eyes moved back to Alyssa, who calmly poked at a pile of mashed potatoes on her tray.

_The same thing happened to Alyssa. She had been so into Jason, but Kimberly had basically stolen her away from him. Then she dumped Jason for Tommy as soon as he came around, after using Jason to pretend to be her boyfriend. _Violet shook her head, spinning the fork much faster as her thoughts shifted to the former yellow ranger, Trini. _Thank God, Trini left. She and Billy weren't meant for each other at all. She was just so…boring. So…nothing compared to him. Not as smart, not as nice, not as…everything. But now Aisha's here and she'll probably start going after Billy, too._

_I'm going to have to do something about that, and soon._

"Vi! Stop!"

Violet suddenly became aware of a strange grinding sound and looked down to see that she had dug a jagged hole into the plastic of her tray. Ribbons of plastic spiraled up and away from the prongs of her fork, leaving deep divots in the tray. With a shaking hand, she dropped the fork and allowed it to clatter against the side of her plate. She looked up as Alyssa dusted off her hands, pushing back her seat.

"All right, I've had enough," she announced. Violet regarded her with confusion and squeaked in surprise as Alyssa reached over and grabbed onto her arm, pulling her out of her chair and dragging her out from around the table. "I'm tired of you sitting here and moping. We're going to sit with them and you're going to talk to your boyfriend, get it?"

"No!"

In vain, Violet frantically tried to grab onto the end of the table, to keep herself rooted, but Alyssa pulled even harder and Violet came flying out of her chair, stumbling. The quick shift in momentum caused the chair she had been sitting in to skid to the side and tumble to the ground, creating a loud clatter that caught the attention of the entire cafeteria.

Cheeks flushing, Violet held her hand over her face, hoping no one was looking at her. _Oh, please don't tell me he's looking at me. _Peeking through her fingers, Violet saw that the rangers had turned their way, to see what had happened, and laughed lightly; smiling in amusement before turning back to their former conversations. _Oh, he looked at me. This is so embarrassing. _Then Violet took a deep breath as they approached the table. _Don't freak out, Violet. You talked to him just fine before, it's not so different now. _Her upper lip curled as they stood at the end of the table and the rangers turned their way. _I just wish he didn't come as a freaking package deal._

"Hey guys," Alyssa greeted them with a smile and a wave. "D'you mind if we sit with you?"

After a quick glance around the table and receiving no opposition, Rocky turned back to the girls and flashed his ever present smile. "Sure, go ahead and sit."

"Thanks."

Alyssa and Violet sat down at the table as the rangers moved over to make space for them. Violet, sitting in between Tommy and Adam, smiled at the two rangers before beaming at Billy, who smiled back before turning his attention back to the notebook in front of him.

"So," Alyssa practically purred, "what's going on?"

"You mean _apart _from that history test we have next period?" Aisha asked with a light roll of her eyes. "I've been studying for what feels like years and I _still _don't know the material."

Violet felt a surge of annoyance and responded with, "It's not that hard. History is one of the easiest subjects. Nothing changes." With the slight edge to her tone, the rangers exchanged glances. Alyssa shot Violet a look and she shrugged in response.

"Well, nothing changes, but remembering the dates is still hard enough," Rocky added. "Except for the wars, those are easy to remember. But why do our teachers expect us to have everything be so exact when we know everything else surrounding it? I don't think being one or two years off is a big deal."

"It is a big deal!" Violet said incredulously. "Wouldn't you care if people had your birthday wrong by a year? Not only that, but history dates _need _to be remembered because they're all so important. Scientific discoveries, wars, different things that had gone on that shaped our control to be the way it is today all needs to be respected!" She finished her tirade with a scowl.

"Are you okay, Violet?" Tommy asked her after a minute. Alyssa had taken that brief pause to elbow her friend in the side. But Violet didn't care. She couldn't believe Billy's friends were so stupid. It was some of the most idiotic things she had ever heard anyone say.

"I'm fine!"

"Really?" Avalon's eyebrows rose. "Because, mate, it sounds to me like you have a stick up your—"

"I said I'm fine!" Violet glared at the orange ranger as Adam reached out a hand and quickly slapped it over her mouth, effectively cutting the shortest girl at the table from finishing the end of her sentence. Violet sighed for a moment and brushed her hair behind her shoulders. _Stay calm, Violet. You're just going to push him away, and ruin everything if you keep acting this way. Once you have him, you won't have to worry about being around any of them anymore._

Billy speaking up in the next second, not seeing to have noticed the slight disagreement that had gone on around him, caught her attention, "Actually, she's kind of right. Not only does remembering when things that happened show the sense of respect we have for those that sacrificed their lives and their livelihood to allow us to live like we do now, but it's better to make sure that we don't eventually repeat the same sort of things they have done before us." He shrugged. "Those who don't study their history are doomed to repeat it."

Violet grinned. "Exactly."

"Thanks, Dr. Cranston," Aisha teased him.

Violet's smile swiftly dropped one more and Alyssa cleared her throat, hoping to settle the tension around the table. "So, what are everyone's plans for this weekend?" She pretended to stay interested in what the rangers had to say before turning to the blue ranger. "Billy? What are you doing?" Violet elbowed him in the side.

"Oh, well, I was thinking of getting some of my homework done. And then after that we were going to—"

With another sharp elbow to the side, Violet immediately understood what Alyssa was trying to tell her what to do. "Really? I thought it would be a good idea if we started gathering some of the materials that would be needed for the computer." She nervously made the motion of pushing her hair back, though it was already tucked behind her ears and shoulders. "I mean, we still have to make sure we talk to Mr. Kaplan, but I'm sure he'll say 'yes'." She giggled lightly. "I think he wants to win just as much as we do."

"That'd be pretty cool if you could actually build your own computer," Adam commented. He gave a small smile, as small and endearing as ever. "It'd probably be one of the biggest things to happen to you."

"That'd be very impressive," Tommy agreed. "Definitely something not many people can say they were able to do."

"And if we get a head start on it over the weekend, we can get it done earlier and see if we can get some programming on it or something," Violet added. She held her breath as Billy tapped his pen against his notebook for a few minutes, thinking about it.

"I'll have to change some things around, but I think it's a splendid idea," he finally said. Reaching up, he scratched the back of his neck. "That just means that I have to get some of this Student Life Committee stuff done early, but Kim and I were just about to head to Ms. Appleby's office anyway."

"Yeah," Kimberly agreed. She pulled her backpack up over her shoulder, the movement causing her shirt to ride up over her stomach, showing off her belly-button. "We'll see you guys later." She leaned over and gave Tommy a kiss on the cheek before bouncing up from the table.

"Slut," Violet murmured. Her eyes narrowed as she watched as she practically skipped over to the blue ranger. _Careful, you don't want to pop out of your shirt. _Moving her hands underneath the table and clenched them into fists, nails digging into her palms. Her eyes stayed on Billy and Kimberly's retreated backs. Watching as every now and then Kimberly would reach out and grab onto Billy's arm, put her hand on his shoulder, leaned against him, grabbing onto his hand.

Watched and waited.

Waited and planned.

* * *

"Thank you so much, Ms. Appleby," Kimberly said as she gathered her books together. "I'm sure that this carnival is going to be the best one the school's ever had." She checked her watch before waving. "Bye, Ms. Appleby. I'll meet you in class, Billy. I have to go change out my books in my locker."

"See you later, Kim."

"Have a good day, Kimberly."

The pink ranger waved and left the classroom, going to her locker. The hallways were already empty, the footsteps of a few kids hurrying to their class before it started. Chewing her lower lip, Kimberly hurried up the large staircase at the front of the school and headed over to her locker as soon as she was on the second floor. Pulling the door open, she reached behind her and pulled open her bag. She paused in the middle of transferring her books when she heard a set of a quick moving footsteps coming from down the hall.

Flipping her hair out of her face, Kimberly looked up and glanced around the hallway. She smiled as she watched the heels of a classmate disappear around the corner before the door slammed shut. Until she looked at her watch and saw how late she truly was.

"Oh no," she moaned. "I'm going to be late." She finished transferring her books and reached out to the door, starting to close it. But the sound of another locker door closing grabbed her attention. She craned her head around the locker door, eyes shifting back and forth. "Hello?" She called softly. Closing her locker door, she swiveled her gaze. "Is anyone there?"

She looked around for a few moments, hoping someone would pop out from around the corner, with a big smile and admitting they were playing a joke on her. And yet, there was no one there. The pink ranger sighed then turned and started down the stairs once more. She came upon the landing and started down the rest of the flight when it happened.

She wasn't sure if she slipped or misplaced her foot, but it felt like a set of hands pressed against her back and shoved her hard.

A light shriek escaped her lips as she wind milled her arms, trying to use the muscle memory from gymnastics to keep her balance. But there was another hard shove from behind and she tripped forward, crashing onto her stomach on the top stairs.

Her momentum caused her legs to curl up over her head until she tumbled heels over head the rest of the ways down the stairs, coming to a painful rest at the bottom.

A light sigh escaped her lips as she passed out.

* * *

**A/N: **Anything else you'd like to see as the story goes on? I have more romance plots coming up with the next chapter.

Thanks to _I love power rangers7135 and brankel1 _for reviewing

**~Avalon**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 06**

* * *

It didn't take long or news to spread around the school that Kimberly had fallen down the stairs. How could a gymnast who did nothing but continuously work on her routine and balance fall down the stairs? If anything, she was truly like a cat in the means that she would be able to twist her body around and keep from injuring herself before she hit the ground.

That's some of the few questions that ran through Billy's mind as soon as he heard the news about one of his best friends. He had been sitting in class with the rest of the rangers, listening to Ms. Appleby teach about the lesson on Advanced United States Government, diligently taking notes, when there was a knock on the classroom door.

Billy, much like the rest of the students, looked up curiously as Ms. Appleby made her way to the door with a pleasant smile, stating "hold on a minute, class" and opening the door. She opened it far enough so that she could see who was at the door, but none of the students could.

Leaning over in his seat, Billy tried to see who was at the door, but half concentrated on getting the rest of the notes down. It wasn't until he heard Ms. Appleby's quiet gasp of shock before turning towards the classroom, her eyes landing on the white ninja ranger. He slowly sat up, noticing that all eyes turned to him and he furrowed his eyebrows together.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

"Mr. Kaplan would like to see you," she said in that same quiet manner.

Shrugging, guessing that he was bound for another conversation about his tardiness to class, Tommy got up from his seat and moved over to the door to join the two teachers. They spoke in low, calm voices, and despite the soothing façade they tried to put on, Billy couldn't help but notice the worried expression fall upon the leader's face before he asked Ms. Appleby a question and she nodded. He hurriedly went back to his desk and gathered his things before leaving the room once more.

"I wonder what that's about," Aisha murmured, her eyebrows furrowing together as she twisted around in her seat. "It must be really important if Mr. Kaplan was the one that delivered the news. I sure hope everything's okay."

"I'm sure everything's fine," Rocky reassured her. He allowed half smile. "I bet he was just reminding Tommy that his lateness affects more people than himself." Despite the laugh that came upon the rangers, the seriousness still filled the air as Ms. Appleby closed the door behind Mr. Kaplan and walked over to the front of the room. "She doesn't look too good."

Adam silently nodded in agreement and the group turned back to the front of the room and Ms. Appleby cleared her throat. "Yes, well, where did I leave off?" She asked. "Oh yes, I was just reminding you all about the principals of legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government which are then headed by three differing factions; the president, congress, and the supreme court."

Adam frowned, his eyebrows twitching for a moment before slowly raising his hand. All of the other students turned towards him before looking back at Ms. Appleby. She gave him a small smile before nodding quietly, allowing him to take the floor to ask his question.

"Is everything alright with Tommy?" He asked her. "Is there some sort of an emergency?"

"No, not quite that serious. Actually…" she trailed off for a moment before letting out a quiet breath. "There's been a bit of an accident. She…she fell down the main stairs and is now in the nurse's office, getting checked out."

Billy sat up straight. He had just seen her a few minutes before class started. He had just left her as he went with Mr. Kaplan's office to talk more about building the computer with his science club and everything had been okay. What could have possibly transpired in those few moments that would have had her hurt herself so badly? As a matter of fact, he was a bit confused. He hadn't heard of her tripping over anything, or even being remotely clumsy since she had started taking gymnastics lessons when she was little. _Everyone trips and falls sometimes, Billy, _the reasonable part of his brain reminded him. _No one is immune._

The clamor that rose around the classroom immediately caught his attention, bringing him back towards the conversation at hand. He hadn't realized that Kim was so popular amongst the students, but then again she had always been so peppy and perky, smiling and greeting everyone that passed by her in the halls. And, as he was sure, being a cheerleader didn't help matters when it came to her reputation around the school.

"Is she going to be okay?" Avalon demanded.

"Is she hurt?" Aisha added.

Ms. Appleby tried to field the questions left and right before, chewing his lower lip. Adam raised his hand and silently raised his eyebrows. Understanding what it was that the red ninja ranger wanted, she let out a conceding sigh and nodded, allowing the rangers to quickly leap up from their seats and gather their things before leaving the room. Their hasty footsteps echoed along the hallways as they hurried towards the nurses' office, arriving just as the nurse was leaving the room. Spotting the teenagers, she smiled before saying gently, "Kimberly's going to be fine. She just has a slight bump on the head."

"That's good news," Aisha breathed.

"Yeah," Rocky agreed. "But Kim is tougher than she looks. I knew she'd be okay."

Adam gave the nurse a polite smile before nodding towards the door. "Is it alright if we go in? I think Tommy's already in there with her."

"Yes, Tommy caused quite a stir when he came in here looking for his girlfriend." The nurse laughed lightly. "It took us a bit to convince him that she wasn't in any life threatening danger. She may complain of headaches for a few days but it's nothing that ice and some pain medication won't cure. Though I do suggest that she take it easy on some of the sports and activities she's a part of. Just for a few weeks, I know she's a gymnast, but I need you all, and her mother, to be sure that she stays put."

"Easier said than done," Billy agreed. "But thank you for telling us that our friend is going to be okay." He smiled towards the nurse and followed his friends into the office and to the back of the room where they found Kimberly sitting on the bed in the corner of the room, a ice pack on her forehead. The blue ninja ranger gave her a short smile. "Well, don't you look a little worse for the wear."

Kimberly laughed lightly. "I'd laugh harder if my head didn't hurt so much." She then gave him an amused smile and added, "Just wait until I'm out of this bed and I'll get you back for that one." Billy smiled and leaned over, giving her a gentle, friendly kiss on the forehead.

"So Mr. Kaplan said that you fell down the stairs," Adam said as he sat down in a chair next to her. He looked back and forth from the pink ranger to the white ranger. "You must've really done a number to yourself if you had to be sent to the nurse."

"Yeah, I haven't seen you go to the nurse in a long time," Tommy said. He gently stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. "Though I guess there's a first time for everything, we can't all be perfect." He smiled and Kimberly smiled back at him, though her eyes flashed, showing that she wanted nothing but to swat him on the arm.

"Do you remember anything about when you fell?" Aisha asked. "Did you trip or something?"

Standing directly beside the bed, Billy glanced down at Kimberly and watched as her face clouded for a minute, trying to remember. Then her eyes widened before her eyebrows furrowed. With a slight sigh of pain, Kimberly pulled herself up until she was in a sitting position. "It sounds weird," she said slowly. "But when I fell…it felt like someone pushed me on the back."

Rocky's eyebrows rose. "You think someone pushed you down the stairs?"

Kimberly thought for a moment then shook her head. "That's such a silly idea right?" She asked. "I mean, who would want to push me down. No, it kind of felt like it. But, I guess I was going really fast and tripped down the stairs." Her eyes clouded for a moment, as if she were trying to remember the incident in question but she shook her head unable to find the memory exactly. "I thought I heard a locker door closing when I was about to leave, but there wasn't anyone in the hallways. They had already gone off to class by then. I don't know."

She gently shook her head and brought a hand up to her forehead, wincing as it brushed against the spot. "I don't know, I really don't remember much." She winced as he fingers pressed directly into the bruise and lowered her hand again. "Oh, I hope I don't do this again anytime soon, it hurts more than I thought it would."

"That's what happens when you fall down the stairs, Kim," Aisha pointed out, causing the room to erupt into light laughter.

The pink ranger then turned her gaze towards Avalon, who stood quietly in the corner of the room. Tilting her head to the side, the pink ranger looked at her for a moment before saying to her, "hey, you. You haven't said anything the entire time you've been in here."

Avalon shrugged, sliding her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "Sorry, mate, I don't really like seeing the people I care about in the hospital beds." She quickly backtracked after pausing for a minute. "Not that you're in one, but I've spent too much time around them, doctors, and nurses to last me a life time." She gave a half smile. "Get better soon, Pinkerbell, I don't want to have to be here more than I need to be."

"Well don't worry about that, I'll be back in class after our trip to the beach." Her eyes shifted earnestly around the rangers. "We're still going, right?"

"Of course. Mum's coming in this Friday morning and we're right after that." Avalon then looked at her watch. "Actually, considering we're all being rebellious and skipping class, I should call and make sure what time her plane is coming in." She went over to the door to the office and pulled it open, stepping back at the same time her head jerked back in surprise as Violet meekly poked her head into the room.

"Hi, everybody," She said quietly, noticing all eyes turn towards her. She then smiled at Billy, lightly chewing her lower lip. "Hi, Billy."

"Hi." He smiled back at her.

"Hi…Violet," Tommy greeted her, exchanging a glance with Kimberly. The pink ranger shrugged in reply before the girl hurried across the room to the pink ranger and stood over her, pushing Aisha and Adam out of the way. "Careful, she's still hurting a little."

"I know," Violet replied. "We all heard. I'm sorry about what happened, Kim. I hope you're okay." She gave her a sweet smile and the pink ranger couldn't help but give one back. "I mean, I know we don't really talk, but you've always been so nice to me, Kim. Especially with our work in art class and stuff."

Billy grimaced to himself.

He couldn't help it.

Nearly every time he thought about art class he was reminded of the sculpture that Violet had made of him in the likeness of being a power ranger. It was flattering in many ways, but it still made him uncomfortable from time to time. He hadn't been used to the attention and…well, he hadn't known her very well enough for her to have had made the sculpture in the first place. Now, as she had stated, she hardly knew Kimberly as the two had barely said five sentences to each other, and here she was fawning over the pink ranger as if they were suddenly best friends. His sentiments must've been agreed upon as Rocky, Adam, and Aisha all exchanged startled glances. Adam, being in the same art class as Tommy, Kimberly, himself, and Avalon had seen firsthand how the girl could be, but Rocky and Aisha hadn't.

It must've been strange for them to see as well, especially as the rangers had a habit to stay close to themselves, not wanting their secrets to get out to anyone else that wouldn't be able to keep it.

"Violet, you don't have to apologize," Adam reminded her.

"Yeah," Rocky agreed. "It's not like you were the one that pushed her down the stairs."

"I know." Bashfully, Violet lowered her head. "Sorry, I guess I'm always just so worried about others. And, well, everyone's worried about you, Kim. I just wanted to be sure that you were okay after your fall."

"That's sweet of you, Violet," Kim replied.

"A little too sweet if you ask me," Avalon murmured. "I'm nearly puking over here." Her upper lip curled in addition to her statement and Billy shot his girlfriend an amused glance. The orange ninja ranger stuck her tongue out in response before looking at her watch. "I really do have to be making that phone call. Get better soon, Kim. I'm holding you to it."

"I will," Kimberly agreed with an eager smile. "I promise we'll have a lot of fun at the beach this weekend. A silly bump like this wouldn't be able to hold me back."

"I always thought you had a thick skull." Sticking her tongue out once more, Avalon left the nurse's office, closing the door behind her. Once she was gone there was an uncomfortable silence around the rangers and Violet that she quickly picked up on.

"Well, I guess I should get going back to class," she said a bit flatly. She turned on her heel and quickly left the office. Billy watched her leave before turning back to the pink ranger, noticing a strange expression on her face. Eyes squinting for a moment, Billy gently nudged her on the arm, referencing to the look that was on her face. Kimberly blinked up at him, as if wondering why he had tried to get her attention, then the expression on her face disappeared and she gestured to her friends. "Guys, I'm fine. My Mom is going to be here in a few minutes to take me home but I promise I'll be up and ready to go to the beach and have some fun. We deserve it after all of the monster fights and work we've been doing lately."

"And after everything with Ivan," Rocky agreed. "He was a bad dude; we really deserve some good times after that."

"Definitely, "Adam chimed in. "And you're definitely a fighter, Kim. You'll be out there playing volleyball and building sandcastles with the rest of us."

Tommy gave him a pointed look. "You know that all she, Aisha, and Kim are going to do is go from shop to shop spending as much as they can and coming back with so many bags there isn't going to be anything else left for the other shoppers." He laughed as Kimberly whacked him on the arm. "Ow! Wow, Kim. It's good to know your personality didn't get knocked out either." He got up from the side of the bed. "We have to get back to class. I'll stop by after school today."

"Me too," Aisha promised. "I'll bring you your notes."

"Thanks." Kimberly smiled. She closed her eyes as Tommy leaned over her and gave her a gentle kiss, then waved to her friends as they left the nurse's office.

Billy glanced at his watch and, seeing as there wasn't much time left in class, made a move to stop by his locker. "I'm going to head to the science club classroom, after talking to Mr. Kaplan we got him to agree that we could build a computer ourselves. I want to get started on some preliminary ideas on it."

"Go ahead, Billy, we'll catch up to you in art class later," Tommy agreed.

Nodding, the blue ranger smiled and nodded to his friends before turning on his heel and heading down the hallway in the opposite direction. Stopping by his locker for an extra notebook, Billy went into the classroom that held the science club during activity hour, surprised to find that Violet was already there, absentmindedly scribbling in a notebook that sat in front of her. She looked up and gave Billy a small, sad smile before lowering her head once more.

"Is something wrong, Violet?" Billy asked her. It took a bit longer for her to respond, as if she had been trying to think of the right words to say. _Strange, the look on her face…it's like the one that Kim had a few minutes ago. _Violet then shrugged a little as Billy walked closer and sat on the stool next to her. "You look kind of down. If it's about Kim's fall, it's really not your fault. I don't understand why you're…"

"I apologized because I saw her fall," Violet interrupted. "I…I saw her fall to the ground and…I didn't know what to do." She looked up at Billy, gently shaking her head. "I guess, I was scared. The noise of her shriek, of her falling was so loud. And it scared me when she hit the floor in front of me. I could've gone to get a teacher or…or to try and get her to wake up, just I just acted like I hadn't seen anything and hurried to class. Like nothing happened!" Squeezing her eyes shut, she leaned forward and rested her face in her hands. "It's my fault, I could've helped her."

Reaching out a hand, Billy placed it on Violet's shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You can't blame yourself for this, Violet. None of it was your fault." His lips then curled into a reassuring smile. "She was found really quickly and she's going to be okay." He laughed lightly to diffuse the situation. "In fact, she's going to be frolicking at the beach harder than anyone I know once she gets the all clear."

"Yeah, Kim's always been so happy," Violet agreed. Her eyes flashed for a minute as she turned her head away. "It's weird; I never thought that you two had anything in common, to be friends. I mean, you used to participate in gymnastics, right? That's about it."

"Yeah, but I think that's why Kim and I are such great friends. The fact that we _don't _have much in common. That way there're different parts of us that we can bring in to have such a good friendship that's lasted so long."

"So you're just friends? You mean you…don't have a thing for her?"

Billy nearly laughed out loud.

It was such a preposterous idea.

Well, if he were completely honest with himself, it wasn't _that _much of a silly idea. When he was younger, much younger, he did have a bit of a school girl crush on him. She was outgoing and bright and happy and always excited to see the new day that was coming for her. Billy, on the other hand, was always a bit shy, just watching the world watch him by. And despite the fact that Kimberly hadn't understood much of what he had been saying for a while, she still stuck by him and up for him along with the rest of the former rangers—Jason, Zack, and Trini. He remembered a few Valentine's Days in grade school that his mother had teasingly suggested that he give her a valentine or tell her how he felt—Mom's always had a sixth sense about the feelings their kids had—and he always blushed and insisted that he didn't want cooties (yes there was a point where he believed in them) and insisted that he was making one or all of his friends.

"No, I don't have a thing for her," Billy finally calmed himself down enough to reply to her questions. He noticed Violet's eyes light up as she sat up straighter. "Besides, she and Tommy are really happy and I hope to see their relationship continue to grow. As a matter of fact I don't think I know anyone better for her."

"Oh." Violet smiled. She then took a deep breath before continuing with, "Well…what about you?" Confused, Billy tilted his head to the side. "I mean, you don't seem like you've been interested in dating much since Trini left…is there anyone that you have your eye on?" Something shifted in her facial expression and she leaned a little closer to Billy, causing him to lean back in return. She reached up a hand and started to rub his wrist. "Because I was thinking that—"

She was cut off as the bell rang. Startled, Billy jumped backwards off of the stool, causing it to crash to the ground. He swiftly bent down to pick it up just as the door to the classroom opened and the rest of the science club entered the room, talking and laughing to each other. They greeted Violet and Billy and waited for him to start the meeting with the Presidential statement.

"Uh, thanks for coming," he said to them before moving to the front of the room. "If you don't mind, I'd like to skip the address this morning to tell you that Mr. Kaplan has accepted our petition to build the computer." He waited for the small smattering of applause to die down before he continued. "We'll have to start up a blueprint of what we want it to look like as well as the parts that we need to get, and then we can start from there." He cleared his throat before turning to Violet, noticing her staring at him. He quickly shifted his gaze away. "It was Violet's idea so I think we should let her decide the type of computer we want to build and—"

"Oh, no," Violet protested in her meek, quiet voice. One that she hadn't been using before, which caused Billy's eyebrows to lower. "I…it wasn't really me idea. I suggested it…but Billy was the one that really went with the idea…his amazing idea." She flashed a shy smile to him and he turned away.

"Alright. Why don't we get started with this…"

* * *

Avalon picked up the stack of towels that sat on the ground beside her and placed them in the canvas bag that lay at her feet. One it was placed inside, she placed her hands on her hips and studied it before grabbing the second stack that sat beside her, this time purple, and tried to shove them into the bag. As they poked over the top, she picked up her foot and tried to use the driving force of her foot to force the towels down to the bottom f the bag.

"Wow, I hope you don't actually feel that way about your sister," Billy remarked as he walked out of the Cranston house carrying a beach ball under one arm and a drawstring bag in the other hand. Bailey trailed behind him with a large beach umbrella. "Though it would explain a lot."

"Yeah, that she's even more mentally deranged than we originally thought," the purple ninja ranger piped up.

"Ha ha." Avalon crossed her arms. "Where's Mum?"

"She's coming in a minute," Bailey replied, reaching up to place the umbrella in the flat bed. "I think she wanted to splash some water on her face before we go." She climbed into the flat bed and Billy climbed up beside her as the orange ranger handed the items up to them to pack up. "And David is making sure that everything is locked up before we go." She rested her hands on the latch of the hatchback. "Do you think this is a good idea?"

"Affirmative, no one else deserves time to have fun more than Dad." Billy stood up and waved as there was a honking sound as the rest of the rangers arrived in Tommy's and Rocky's trucks.

Avalon rose as well before turning back to the blue ninja ranger, resting her elbow against the hatchback and resting her cheek in her hand. "I think she meant is it a good idea to leave Angel Grove when there's more than likely to be an attack or something that we'll have to run off and do."

"Ah, well, it'll be something to look forward to," Billy remarked. "It's not like we haven't had to deal with that before. And if we get bored of the beach then it'll make sure that we're doing something else to keep ourselves occupied."

"Mmm, like you are?"

"What d'you mean?"

"I reckon,"—Avalon reached up and grabbed onto Billy's wrist, holding him still. He leaned down, giving her his attention. "That you seem to be in a real hurry to get out of here when you're normally the first one that would remind us the probabilities and statistics that there would be a catastrophic monster attack and we should stay behind, yeah?"

"Is it bad that I want to have a good time?" He gave her an uncharacteristically impish smile before leaning down and giving her a long kiss.

"Eww, old people kissing," Fred joked as he walked up, a sleeping bag under his arm.

Avalon broke the kiss with her boyfriend and swatted at Fred as he passed her. "Just as long as we're not bad as Tommy and Kim, then I'd say that we're beauty." She laughed before bouncing over to the other rangers, giving them a hug before hugging Kimberly last. "Glad to see you're okay, shiela."

"I told you that nothing could keep me from the beach," Kimberly replied. "And I needed an excuse for Mom not to watch me all weekend long."

"She's just showing that she cares, "Aisha reminded her.

"I know. But sometimes I don't think she remembers that I'm not a little girl."

"I'm always going to be my Mom's little boy," the red ranger spoke up. "They never really grow out of it."

"Tell me about it."

"Good morning," Ellie Mitchell called as she and David Cranston left the house and walked down the driveway towards the rangers. She flashed a bright smile that combated the jet lag she had to have been feeling as her flight had come in early that morning. "How ya going?"

"We're doing well, Mrs. Mitchell, thank you for asking," Adam replied politely. "And thank you for inviting us to go the beach; it's really nice of you."

"Well, I really looking forward to see my daughters again and it's always so great to see you lot." She then turned to David and gave him a sympathetic smile. "And it was the best time to meet the family that's been taking care of them for so long."

David returned the smile with a grateful one as she hadn't brought up the subject that many tried to avoid around him. "We're glad to have them around, ad are glad we could help them out the way we could." He rubbed his hands together. "So all we have to do is figure out who is going in what car. I can take Ellie, Bailey, and Fred in your truck, Billy, if you want to go with your friends."

Bailey immediately turned to the blue ranger with wide eyes, frantically shaking her head, causing the orange ranger to laugh, knowing that she was simply trying to avoid the plethora of questions their mother was going to bestow upon the purple ranger and her boyfriend.

"Or they could ride with us," Kimberly offered, quickly coming to her aid. "And then Billy and Av can go with Rocky, Adam, and Aisha and you two could take Billy's truck. That way you two can try and get to know each other."

"That's fine with me," Rocky replied.

Avalon gave her friends a funny look. "I hope you're not trying to set up my mum with Billy's Dad because that would be the seventh level of creepy."

Ellie laughed her tinkling laugh before reaching out and affectionately running her hand over the orange ranger's hair. "That's alright; you can ride down there with your friends. I don't mind."

Bailey grabbed onto Fred's wrist and practically sprinted towards the white ranger's car once she got the chance, causing the others to laugh loudly before they all went to their own cars. "Okay, I have plenty of space to fit three in the back. So, Aisha, why don't you sit up from with me," Rocky suggested.

"Sure, Rocky. That sounds—"

"Actually," Adam broke in. "It might be a better idea if Av sits up front." He shrugged as all eyes turned to him. "She's the one that knows where we're going, so she'd be the best to give you the directions to get there."

"That's a good idea," Billy agreed. "And it would to optimize the time it would take for us to get there which would, in turn, capitalize on the time that we can spend at the beach and at the neighboring shops."

Aisha blinked for a minute, trying to figure out what it was that the blue ranger had just said. Finally, she held up her hands and said, "What he said". With that, Rock and Avalon moved to the front of the car as Billy, Adam, and Aisha went to the back. The black ninja ranger quickly opened the door for her, causing the yellow ranger to beam her thanks and climb inside. Adam followed after her with a bashful smile, which Rocky noticed in the rearview mirror.

Once everyone was inside he started up the truck and was the first to peel out with Tommy behind him, and David bringing up the rear.

Now it was time to have fun.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm sorry it took so long to update, but at least things are moving a bit quicker now.

Thanks to _I love power rangers7135, brankel 1, and Ashley_ for reviewing.

**~Avalon**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 07**

* * *

"This was a great idea, Vi," Alyssa said as she stretched her arms over her head. Standing on the balcony of the beach house, she took in a deep breath and allowed the warm, salty air to blow over her. Then, lowering her hands she rested it on the railing of the balcony and gazed out at the sweeping ocean that stretched before her. "I don't know why we don't come out here more often. Mom and Dad sure to pay enough for it."

"Probably because they rent it out for the summer," Violet replied from further in the bedroom. "In this economy it's one of the better ways to make money while you don't actually have to lift a finger." Tilting her head to the side, she brought a hand up to her mouth and examined the bathing suits resting on the bed. They weren't the kind that she would normally wear. _But if Billy is interested in someone like Kim there must be something I'm doing wrong. With the little amount of clothing she wears I'm surprised anyone takes her seriously. I'll bet she's given it up to all of them. _The thought caused her to scowl, dropping her hand from her mouth. "Bitch."

They all were all three of the girls that were closer to him than she was. They were just in the way. By now she and Billy probably would be working on their project for the science fair, or something, if they hadn't had decided to go to the beach. She had been so close to getting him to admit his feelings for her when waiting for the science club to start. Then the rest of the club had to arrive and it made him skittish.

She had been so close to getting a response, maybe even have him ask her out. It was tiring having to do all the work on her own.

"What?"

Violet's eyes widened innocently as she turned to her best friend, who had come up behind her. "Nothing," she said. "I was just wondering what kind of bathing suit I want to wear to the beach." She took a step back as Alyssa made a show of shooing her away from the bed.

"If its one thing I know, it's how to dress for the beach," Alyssa remarked. She let out a naughty giggle. "Especially if you want to flirt a little." She scanned the options that rested on the bed. "Are these for Billy by any chance?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Violet didn't mean to snap at her, she really didn't mean to. But the reminder that she had practically been promised by the blue ninja ranger to work on the computer that weekend instead of gallivanting off to the beach had put her in an incredibly bad mood. _I can't believe he lead me on like that. _But after a few seconds she found herself smiling again. She couldn't be mad at him, not for too long.

"Nothing, girl, it's just that you don't usually wear bikinis," Alyssa pointed out. She flopped dramatically onto Violet's bed, draping her arm across her face. "I've had to practically bribe you with everything in my possession to get you to even think about it the last time we were at the pool and you still wore a one-piece."

"Yeah, well, I never had a reason to, before."

Alyssa and Violet collapsed into giggles onto the bed. Stretching her arms like Alyssa had done before, Violet rolled onto her back, shielding her face from the sun. Talking Alyssa into going to the beach had been so easy, especially after having found out where Billy and the others would be going to the beach. That hadn't been especially hard in itself; they talked about it enough so that Violet had an idea of what beach they would be going to. Now all she had to do was figure out what house they would be staying at. There were only a few choices, and from what she could tell from having heard the rangers that morning, the place belonged to Avalon and Bailey.

_Of course_, Violet thought as she sat ducked in the driver's seat of her car as it had been parked across the street from Billy's house. She watched and listened, just out of sight as the rangers, Billy's Dad, and Avalon's Mom figured out who was going to be riding in what car down to the beach. _Of course they'd be the ones that would have the fancy house. Princess Kim can't have everything. _And then Violet's blood boiled as she watched Billy and Avalon talk while at the back of his truck.

And he kissed her.

He kissed her!

Just like he had at the bookstore. Or at least, she wasn't sure if he had, then. She had been so far away across the parking lot when she spotted them. It looked like they were just standing so close. Now she knew that wasn't the case and she wanted to scream.

Someone that didn't seem to be so into dating, more into sticking by himself once Trini had left had kissed someone other than Violet. The nerve of him! Well, as far as she could tell, he was by himself when he wasn't constantly around his friends anyway. Having been in his class for so long, no matter how many people he was friendly with, he would then turn in on himself while he worked. But that's what Violet liked about the blue ninja ranger. He was a mystery in a way; a lone wolf that new when to come out and play when the time came. He was so mysterious that she hadn't noticed—or didn't want to notice—that he may have someone else he was going out with. She would've thought that Kimberly or Aisha would've been it; they were both so…happy, so cutesy, flinging themselves at nearly any of the guys that came their way.

He would've never thought that he would go after someone that was so…she couldn't even find the right words to describe how much she disliked Avalon. It was bad enough she was already living with Billy, wasn't there some sort of dating rule or something? It was disgusting and…just so wrong.

"So, when are we headed out to the beach?" Alyssa rolled onto her stomach. "Mom and Dad are going to be sleeping for the rest of the day, I'm sure. So we're on our own for a while. Let's go do something! Scope out boys or whatever." She gave Violet a playful look. "Call Billy and we'll meet him down at the beach."

Violet swallowed hard. How was she going to spin this when she wasn't sure where they were going to be? It shouldn't be that hard, she was able to figure things out before. She just had to move fast if she was going to have Billy notice what she could offer him, how similar they were, how they should be the ones who should be in a relationship.

"Let me just get changed and then we can figure out what's happening," Violet said. She rolled off of her bed and reached out, grabbing onto a bikini that sat nearest to her. Practically flinging herself into the bathroom, she closed the door behind her before dropping her bathing suit to the floor and bringing her hair back behind her in a ponytail. As she did so, she gazed at her reflection in the mirror, staring hard at herself as she did so.

She looked good, she knew she did. What else could she do to have Billy see it? Glancing down at her toiletry bag, she reached inside and pulled out her contacts case. Before she never really liked the idea of wearing contacts compared to her glasses, it didn't make her look as intellectual as she did with her frames. "If that's something Billy likes…" she murmured, reminding herself that even he had ditched his glasses for contacts as of late.

Taking a deep breath, Violet changed out of her overalls and t-shirt into her pale purple bikini then replaced her overalls on top. Twisting her mouth to the side, she took off her glasses and moved her contacts case towards her. Putting the corrective lenses in her eyes, they burned for a moment, causing her to wince and squeeze her eyes shut. Pacing back and forth as she waited for the sting to recede, Violet reached over and grabbed a towel, dabbing it at her eyes. As the pain subsided ad she was able to open her eyes a little bit.

Turning towards the window, she spotted something moving down the street and, upon closer inspection, recognized Billy's truck pulling up towards one of the more expansive houses at the end of the street. Violet's heart leapt into her throat when the doors opened and she spotted Billy and his friends getting out.

_This is going to be a lot easier than I thought. _Smiling to herself, Violet dabbed at her eyes a few more times, then replaced the towel. She flung open the door of the bathroom so hard that it cracked against the wall behind it. Alyssa jumped at the sound, letting out a light shriek, swiftly backing away from Violet's bag that sat on her bed.

"What were you doing?" Violet narrowed her eyes as she stormed over to her best friend. She didn't give Alyssa the chance to respond before moving into her face. "What were you doing in my bag, Alyssa?"

Raising her eyebrows, Alyssa reached out and pushed Violet back away from her. "I was just seeing if you had any sun block, I forgot mine." Turning back to her side of the room, the blonde gave Violet a strange look. "Chill, girl, I wasn't going through your things or anything. You need to relax a little bit; we're supposed to be having fun, remember?"

"Just don't go through my things. Don't touch my stuff"

"Relax, Vi, I'm sorry. Don't forget that you're staying at my place and we can leave anytime I want."

"Fine."

"Fine."

A long silence hung through the room as the girls regarded each other. Violet's upper lip curled, turning to her bag and looking through it. Was anything out of place? She wasn't sure. It didn't look like it. Still she couldn't risk it.

"So, did you manage to get a hold of Billy?"

The mention of the blue ranger's name immediately caused Violet to smile. She couldn't help it. He was just so cute. And it wasn't much longer until he was hers. Not if she had anything to say about it. Clearing her throat, she went over to Alyssa and grabbed onto her arm, walking her over to the window on the other side of the room. Pushing back the curtains, she pointed and Alyssa leaned in, watching s the rangers spilled out around their cars, taking out bags and bringing them into the house. Even from where they were standing, they could hear the loud laughter and shouts as they all tried to stay organized, bringing everything into the house.

"Awesome!" Alyssa cheered. "Come on; let's go say 'hi'!" Tightening her grip on Violet's hand, she pulled the brunette away from the window and out of the room. Calling over her shoulder to her parents' room that the girls were going to take a walk, Alyssa dragged Violet out of the house and down the street.

As the Violet hurried to keep up with her best friend, she couldn't stop the smile that wormed its way onto her face.

* * *

"It's the last house on the right," Bailey directed Tommy, leaning in from the backseat, and pointing it out. No matter how many times she was in the beach town, she always marveled at the houses they passed, even more so than the one that her father owned. "The one with the bright blue mailbox."

"Wow, it looks great," Kimberly said as she leaned forward from the passenger seat to see it as well. Even Fred leaned in from Bailey's other side to look out the window as well. "It's so big, too! How many bedrooms are there?"

The purple ninja ranger shrugged as she leaned back in her seat. Suddenly uncomfortable, she crossed her arms over her chest. "A lot, I don't know. Av and I only used one…when we used to live here." She trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck.

Tommy glanced at her in the rearview mirror, his eyebrows rising. "You used to live here?" He asked.

Nodding Bailey tried to sound upbeat. "When we were still living in our apartment, before starting school at Angel Grove, we would come out here over the summer, so that the landlord wouldn't questions why we were always around. We'd live here every now and then, I think, at the time, Av was hoping that we would get away from the Vipers while we were out here, but that didn't work so much. It's cool, though, there's so much to see and the shops in town are really cool."

"Well, I can't wait to see it," Kimberly said.

Bailey smiled and nodded. She was excited to be there, too. They really needed the time off from fighting monsters and worrying about schoolwork, and what Rita and Zedd were going to be doing that day. Anything that would give them some sort of a break, to have them feel like themselves, like teenagers again; she was all for it.

Pulling up into the driveway, the white ninja ranger turned off the car and climbed out just as Rocky, still driving Billy's truck, pulled up on the side of the road, with David and Ellie pulling up behind it. The rangers got out of their cars and started to unload their bags.

"Wow, this place looks so awesome!" Rocky declared, passing Billy his keys to his truck.

"And we're so close to the beach, too!" Aisha added. Turning, she shielded her face with her hand and watched as the waves rolled onto the beach. "I can even feel the spray of the waves from here. And it feels great. I don't think I ever want to go back to Angel Grove."

"What are you going to do about school?" Adam reminded her, taking her bag down from the back of the tuck. "You still have your schoolwork to do. I don't think Ms. Appleby is against sending down your stuff."

"That'll be right," Avalon agreed. "The only problem is that the rent here is probably a lot more than you could afford so unless you want to end up living in a cardboard box…"

"Hey, I don't care just as long as I can stay in paradise," the yellow ninja ranger insisted, causing everyone to laugh.

"Okay, let's get all of this stuff inside and then we can figure out the sleeping arrangements," Ellie said cheerfully, clasping her hands together. "So everyone please lend a hand. The faster we get through this, the faster we can get unpacked, yeah?"

"Sure thing."

"Okay!"

"No problem.

Billy climbed up into the flat bed of his truck and lowered the trunk. As the rangers got into a line, he passed out the bags and coolers that had been stacked up inside and the rangers brought them into the house. They had gotten through most of the items in the cars when Rocky, who was at the front of the line, paused as he took a bag filled with towels, looking down the street.

"Whoa. Who's that?"

"Who's who?" Fred asked.

Rocky nodded up the street and Billy stood up straight, shielding his face with his hands. It wasn't until the two girls were a few feet away that they slowed to a walk. He swallowed thickly when he recognized Alyssa. It took him a second to recognize Violet, and when he did, he turned away, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, immediately thinking back to how she had come onto him when they had been alone in the classroom after Kim's accident. Well, he wasn't exactly sure if that's what she had been doing, but it made him feel weird.

A little uncomfortable really. The conversation had moved so quickly, they had been speaking about Kim's having fallen down the stairs, and how Violet had apologized for not doing anything to help her, then all of a sudden he was asked if he thought of Kim as a girlfriend, then she started to rub his wrist and…

He still didn't know what to do about it. It wasn't like she had done anything wrong. Still, there was something about the way she had spoken to him that put him on edge. Even worse than fighting Goldar or the Tengas. Maybe because he understood that while monsters were monsters and they were known for being evil, humans having the opportunity to turn around and become as evil was more disconcerting.

"Hey guys," Alyssa greeted them once she and Violet arrived at their cars. "What are you doing here?" She then reached up and lightly slapped herself on the forehead. "I mean, it's kind of obvious what you're doing here. You can to enjoy the beach, right? So did we!"

"I didn't know that you have a beach house out here," Kimberly remarked, placing her hands on her hips. She looked at Violet then did a double-take, her eyebrows rising. "Wow, Violet, I almost didn't recognize you. You look so different."

"Thanks." Violet smiled. She brought her hand up to push her glasses up her nose, and then stopped, realizing she wasn't wearing them. "I wanted to try something different. So…" her eyes shifted over the rangers before landing on Billy, who managed a small smile. "What do you think? It's kind of weird; I keep thinking that I'm wearing my glasses."

"I have the same problem," Bailey agreed politely. "But I think you look great." She turned to Fred and the two exchanged and odd look as they picked up some bags and went into the house, following Ellie and David as the continued unpacking.

"So you guys are taking a vacation out here, too?" Adam asked, leaning against Billy's truck. His voice sounded weird, Billy noted. As if he were completely confused. "I didn't know you had a place out here."

"Oh, it's mine," Alyssa said. "My Mom and Dad come out here every now and then. And we had no plans this weekend so we thought we would come out here and have some fun. Get some time away from school, hang out…" she trailed off, as Violet smiled and nodded. "Speaking of which, we were wondering if you guys were going to be heading down to the beach or something soon. Did you want to hang out?"

"Uh…"

Kimberly turned to look back at her friends not sure how to answer. As her back was turned to the girls, she made an expression of confusion, probably the same ones that were on all of the other ranger's faces. It was a strange coincidence they were there at the same time the rangers were going to be there.

"Actually, we have loads of unpacking to do," Avalon said calmly, crossing her arms. "Not only that but we have to figure out the cooking schedule while we're here, cleaning, who's going to be sleeping where, figuring out what sort of things we want to do, and I'm sure after all of this we're all going to be pretty knackered and will just want to figure out what to do to chill out tonight."

Billy studied Violet throughout the conversation and frowned when he noted that after the orange ranger had spoken a glare flashed across her face. She managed to tone it down to a scowl, but he still noticed it. In fact, it wasn't the first time she had glared or scowled around his friends. He remembered when she sat with them at lunch that she lost her temper with them pretty quickly.

"Well, if you ever need any help," Violet practically snarled through gritted teeth.

"That'd be great, actually," Ellie said as she and David came back out of the house. The rangers turned towards the woman as she went over to the two girls. "We need all of the help we can get. That's so sweet of you…" she trailed off, realizing she didn't know their names.

"Oh, I'm Alyssa Norman and this is Violet McKinley," Alyssa said quickly. She reached out her hand and Ellie shook it firmly before shaking David's as well. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Mitchell, and good to see you again, Mr. Cranston. My parents wanted me to tell you that they're sorry for your loss."

Nodding his thanks, David went over to his car. "Things will go a lot quicker if we had your help. Please take whatever you can lift and just bring it into the house. Once everything is inside, we'll figure out where it all goes."

Violet and Alyssa took some of the bags that were sitting on the driveway and disappeared into the house. Rocky let out a low whistle under his breath as the rangers turned back to their things. "What was that about?" the red ninja ranger asked low enough so that his friends could hear but the others inside couldn't hear. "And how did they know we were here?"

"What do you mean?" Fred asked, lifting his hat and wiping sweat from his forehead. "Aren't they friends of yours?"

"Not exactly," Tommy said slowly. He scratched his arm, holding a sleeping bag against his waist. "I mean, we don't really have a lot of friends outside of being a ranger. Just to keep them safe, you know?" Fred nodded. "Otherwise, none of us have really been friends with Violet or Alyssa."

"I mean, they're nice," Kimberly agreed. "They've been in our class for a long time and haven't really stood out in any way. But Violet is _really _smart, just as smart as Billy is. They're competing to be valedictorian by the time we graduate." She smiled a little, playfully smiling at Billy as she tilted her head to the side. "They're working on building a computer for the science fair this time around. So I bet they're going to be spending even more time together."

"Sounds like it," Aisha agreed. She reached out and put her arm around the orange ninja ranger's shoulders. "It looks like you have a run for your money, Av."

"Please." The orange ninja ranger rolled her eyes and smirked. "I'd drop kick her ass in a second, yeah?" She laughed along with the others and they moved to gather their stuff once more. Billy was the last one to go, making sure everything was moved inside, before locking his truck and following his friends in.

He let out a low breath as the cool air of the AC washed over him, as soon as he stepped in through the front door. That was only seconds before he took stock of all of the bags, baskets, and coolers they had brought with them to the beach. As much as he was systematic and organized, enjoying everything in its place, he still hated having to put things away. So much to the fact that when his mother was still alive they would trade off of him going to the store with her and taking the bags inside the house as long as he wasn't the one that didn't have to put everything away.

"Okay, everything over here is going upstairs to the rooms," Bailey said, waving her hands over the items that were to her left. "All of this other stuff is going into the linen cabinets and in the kitchen. I think that as long as we get the food up and our beds squared away, we won't have to worry about it."

"Have we figured out what the rooming situation is going to be yet?" Rocky asked. He yawned, stretching his arms over his head. "All of that driving wore me out." He, Billy, Aisha, and Adam turned to the orange ranger, whose eyes widened in indignation.

"Well, if you would've actually listened to my directions we wouldn't have had to turn around five times, mate."

"It's not my fault; your accent is so thick. And what's up with the slang? Who's supposed to know what 'chuck a yewy' mean?"

"Do a u-turn," Ellie, Avalon, and Bailey all said in unison, causing Rocky to roll his eyes and commend his defeat. "Anyway, Cadence, Abigail, why don't you help me and David put some of the food away and then the others can figure out where they want to stay. There's plenty of room for everyone."

"No worries," Bailey said. She turned back to the rangers, Violet, and Alyssa. "Av and I are staying in the room that's the first left at the top of the stairs. The rest of you guys can choose whichever rooms you want, you can all fit as long as you do two or three to a room. C'mon, Av." She lightly tapped her sister on the arm before they disappeared into the kitchen with the adults.

Billy picked up his gym bag from the floor and slid it over his shoulder before grabbing a bag of linens and a sleeping bag as well. He followed the rangers up the winding stairs and as they—more specifically Kimberly and Aisha—oohed and ahed over the décor of the house. Much like the rest of the house, it went along with a sunset theme, with bright colored seashells and paintings that resembled the view they had form all sides of the house.

"Hey Tommy," Billy called over to the white ranger, who was peering out the window at the beach. When the leader of the rangers turned around, he tilted his head towards the room. "Do you want to crash in this room? Rocky, Adam, and Fred can have the next one over."

"Yeah, man that sounds good," Tommy agreed. He then pointed towards the room that was by him. "Best thing is we're just down the hall from the game room. And they have a pool table."

"That should be interesting, now the white ranger can lose all his money at that as opposed to spending it on the smoothies and protein shakes at Ernie's." Billy laughed as Tommy gave him the finger and disappeared into the game room. Turning on his heel, Billy went into the room he and Tommy was going to share and dropped his bag onto the foot of the bed and a sleeping bag onto the floor.

"Hey Billy." The blue ninja ranger whipped around to find Violet had walked into the room after him, holding onto a pile of pillows. "Where do you want these?" She shifted the pillows in her hands, waiting for his response.

Swallowing thickly, Billy motioned towards the dresser that was sitting across the room from his bed. "Over there is fine," he managed to say. "We still have to make the beds and everything, so we don't' need them yet." Violet smiled and nodded, going over to the dresser. "So it's funny that we just so happen to be here at the same time, huh? Do you think you'll have some time to get some ideas about the computer done? It'd be the best time to get a jump start on the schematics and everything." She turned back to him and took a few steps towards him, eyes alight with eagerness.

"That sounds fine." He barely managed to get the words out of his mouth before Violet took a large step towards him, beaming up at him. Billy took a step back, the back of his knees hitting the edge of his bed, almost causing him to fall over.

"Great! When do you want to get started? You could always come over to Alyssa's parents' place if you want things to be a bit quieter." She moved for him once more and he instinctively moved back, falling onto the bed. "Or I could come over here sometimes. We have all vacation."

"Ah…"

"Billy?" Violet and Billy turned around to see Rocky standing in the doorway, holding onto a backpack. "Uh, is this your backpack? We saw it by the door and no one could tell." He looked over at Violet, who lowered her head and quickly moved out of the room before the red ninja ranger turned back to Billy, who pulled himself up from the bed. "Dude, are you okay? What was that?"

"I have…no idea," Billy replied. He then examined the blue backpack that Rocky held in his hands and his eyebrows rose. "You couldn't tell that was my backpack?"

"I knew it was yours," he replied. "I just wasn't sure what was going on?"

"I think…" Billy crossed his arms. "I think she may have been hitting on me."

"You think?"

"I mean, she was asking when we could work on our science fair project—"

"She _was_ hitting on you, dude," Rocky explained, handing over Billy's backpack which was laden down with schoolbooks. Of course he couldn't spend one day away from his work. "I don't know anyone else that would want to do homework with you when you're on vacation." With a light sigh, Billy dropped his backpack onto his bed before running his hands over his hair, pacing back and forth. "So what are you going to do?"

"What do you think I should do?" Billy returned.

He had never been in a situation like this before and really had no idea how to get out of it. So Violet liked him. That was fine. And his mother and father had warned him that it was going to happen at one point, that someone would like him that he didn't feel the same way about, and all he had to do was be nice and let her down gently. But…she was so nice and he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Well, if you don't think it's' a big deal, my first suggestion would be not to tell Av," Rocky suggested. Billy gave him a weird look. "You don't know how she'll react and as it is and the only time that you should tell her is if you think that it's something that is a big deal. If you don't think it'll matter, don't say anything."

Billy hummed.

"Otherwise, I'd let her down gently. Just tell her you're not interested. She's smart; I think she'll get the hint."

"But I don't want to hurt her."

"But you don't want to lead her on, either."

"Yeah…"

"Hey!" The boys could hear Aisha's voice shouting form downstairs. "Are you guys going to help us, or what?" Rocky rolled his eyes, causing Billy to smile and the two left the room, heading back down to the stairs to get more things to be brought up to the rooms. He looked around, seeing Violet and Alyssa weren't around and let out a light sigh.

"Are you okay, Billy?" Kimberly asked, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Billy replied with a smile. "I'm feeling great."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 08**

* * *

With a scowl crossing her face, Violet paced back and forth across the room she and Alyssa shared in the beach house. She looked over at her best friend's sleeping form, her upper lip curling as she did so. How could she sleep so well? How was she able to just ignore what happened that day and not offer a single word of empathy or compassion for the whole situation? Didn't she understand how humiliated she was after Rocky had interrupted her and Billy's conversation.

_But no, all she cared about was when we were going to go to the beach. That bitch. _With a light roll of her eyes, Violet turned back to Alyssa and walked over to her bed. She stood over her best friend for a long moment, and then lifted her chin, turning her gaze towards the bedroom door. Alyssa's parents were sleeping down at the other end of the hall, and there were no security systems of any of the beach houses in the area.

This was going to be easy.

Going to her bag, Violet pulled out a sweatshirt and pulled it on over her pajamas before taking her cell phone with her. Glancing at her watch, she turned to the side and grabbed onto the windowsill. Holding her breath, she pressed her palms against the glass and slowly pushed it upwards, hoping that the wood wouldn't make a scratching sound against the frame. It inched upwards very slowly and Violet slowly released her breath when she realized it wasn't going to give herself away. Carefully, she stuck her leg out the window and followed it with her other leg before sliding her body out, carefully lowering herself towards the deck that was underneath the window. Once she was hanging onto the window sill by her hands, she let go and dropped the last few feet to the deck, landing in a light crouch.

Once on the ground, she tucked her hair up underneath the hood of her sweatshirt and hurried down the steps of the deck and around the side of the beach house. Sunlight started to peek up above the horizon and she knew that she had left at the right time. Starting at a light jog down the street, she directed herself towards the beach house the rangers were staying in and slowly started to make her way there.

Moving at a light jog, Violet made her way across the neighborhood until she found a pack of joggers moving up the street in front of her. She heard their voices before it became apparent to her that she did truly find the boys. Tommy, Billy, Rocky, and Jason had always been the ones she saw around the Youth Center on practically every workout equipment ever made. If they weren't lifting weights, they were running on the treadmill, if they weren't running on the treadmill they were sparring with each other, when they weren't sparring they were teaching classes. She had never seen the boys take a day off since she started to pay attention to what they did.

Today was like no other, where the four boys were already up and running on their early morning routine. She didn't think they would ever be able to take a day off from their workout routines, but that was exactly what she needed. Violet followed the boys down to the beach and crouched down behind a retaining wall, watching. She pulled a tiny notebook out of the pocket of her sweatshirt and a pen from her jeans pocket and wrote down everything the boys did.

She wrote the time they left the house, the time they arrived at the beach, how long it took for them to get there and everything about their routine once they were at the beach. She wrote down the differing exercises they did as well as how many reps and how long they worked on each one. Once the boys collapsed onto the sand, appearing to take a break, she tucked her notebook back into the pocket of her sweatshirt and made her way back to the rangers' beach house.

Once there, she walked along the grounds, taking stock of all of the entrances to the house. Then she peered in through the windows and checked to see if she could detect any movement inside. Circling the house a couple of times, she brought out her notebook and wrote:

_Boys leave the house early to get in a workout, everyone else stays asleep a while longer. Expect them to be up by at least eight._

She shoved her notebook back into the pocket then went over to the deck that was situated along the back of their house as well. Looking around, she crept up the steps and to the back door of the house and looked around the sliding door that led from the living room to the deck. With a brief look over it, she could see the locks and mechanics of the door were the same as they were on the beach house she was staying in.

_Great. _A smile spread across her face as she took out her pen and took the cap off of it. She then produced a nail file, taken from Alyssa's bedside table as she had stood over her friend earlier that morning, and slid it between the door and the doorframe. Wiggling it back and forth a few times, she heard a light cracking sound, and then stuck in the pen cap into the door to pull it apart even further. Her smile widened as she saw the door opened a little further.

She then held onto the door and gave it a sharp tug, causing the door to crack, breaking the lock. She then slid the door back into place, being as quiet as she could, then took back the pen cap and nail file and hurried down the steps of the deck. She rounded the side of the house and watched as the boys started to come up the street in the distance, then ducked her head, rushing back to her beach house. She ran up the side of the deck, climbed up onto the railing, and hoisted herself back inside the house all within a few movements.

She slid the window closed and turned around, pulling off her sweatshirt and ducked back into bed, all before Alyssa turned in her bed and let out a long sigh, stretching her arms out to the side. Violet then feigned waking up as well, throwing in a few yawns and low grunts as she did so, to sell the pitch.

"Hey," Alyssa murmured, rubbing her eyes. "How'd you sleep? I hope the sound of the air conditioning unit didn't wake you up, it can get pretty noisy."

"It's alright." Violet pushed her glasses up her nose and looked Alyssa in the eye. "I slept fine."

* * *

**A/N: **I know what some of you might say…a wait that long just to get a short chapter. I'm sorry, I didn't want to force a chapter out and I knew what I wanted to have happen, but then this idea popped into my mind which I think makes more sense in the way the story flows. Also, I've finally gotten the rest of the general story idea planned out, so there will be longer chapters as well as monster/Tenga fights coming in to play.

I hope you liked it, anyway.

~Avalon


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 09**

* * *

Bailey frowned as she turned back and forth in front of the mirror. Tilting her head to the side, she adjusted the strap to her purple bikini top over her shoulder then turned around to look at herself from the back. She let out a light sigh and turned back to her front, adjusting the shoulder straps once more. Nothing seemed to fit right, or else she was just letting her insecurities take over again. It wasn't that hard to deduce, she was the kind of person that worked via the use of facts and logic and scientific reason. Everything else…was very foreign to her.

So feeling unconfident was something she truly was not used to. Nor was she very fond of it, especially when it came to the point of just being a regular teenager. Even when she was young, she was never a regular kid. Her smarts made it so that many people around her avoided her unless they needed help to study or on some sort of homework assignment. Even when she moved to Angel Grove, it was all the same, for a while she hung out by herself as her classmates found her exemplary skills in science and math to be a bit alienating. Then her sister had met the other rangers and she met Fred and things started to get better.

Now that they were at the beach, it appeared all of her insecurities were going to come back tenfold. Not even being a power ranger could keep her confident in all aspects of her life.

"Are you coming, Bay?"

The purple ninja ranger turned around to face her sister as she came into their room, a towel slung over her shoulder. Bailey let out a light sigh as she took in her sister's orange bikini top and black shorts as she carried a surfboard under her arm. Of course she didn't worry so much about how she looked, she had confidence for days. _Or as she puts it, _Bailey thought, _enough confidence to make up for her lack of height. _She smiled at little at the thought of how upset her older sister was as everyone around her seemed to tower over her.

The orange ninja ranger immediately noticed the apprehension that showcased on her little sister's face and set her surfboard down on the floor. She carefully stepped over it before going to her sister and placing her hand under Bailey's chin and tilting her head back so she got a closer look at her face. "What's wrong, Bay?"

"Nothing." Bailey shrugged and turned back to the mirror. She brushed her hair back from her shoulders and continued to look at her reflection in the mirror. "I'll be ready in a few minutes."

"It's not 'nothing', Sis. I can tell from the look on your face, yeah?" Avalon took a couple of steps back and sat down on the end of her bed, crossing her legs Indian style. "What's going on?" She waited as Bailey turned back to the mirror and continued to scrutinize herself. "Oh, I get it."

"Get what?" Bailey turned away from the mirror and went over to her bed, grabbing her t-shirt and shorts, pulling them on. "There's nothing to get."

"Other than the fact that you're embarrassed to be in your bathing suit on the beach…let alone in front of your boyfriend?"

The purple ninja ranger shrugged and avoided her sister's gaze. She pulled on her clothes and busied herself, looking around for her drawstring bag that held her glasses case, goggles, a towel, and a book, busying herself the best she could. Still, she could hear her sister get off of the bed before going over to the bedroom door and called for Kimberly and Aisha. Bailey continued to pretend that she didn't understand what her sister was doing before the pink and yellow ninja rangers bounced into the room, already giggling happily.

"Geez, do you guys ever give it a rest?" Avalon asked.

"Hey, nothing is as fun as going to the beach," Aisha declared. "Nothing! We haven't been able to go as much when we were in Angel Grove so the chance to spend a vacation here for more than a couple of days is just great."

"Yeah," Kimberly agreed. "There's so much we can do around here. Hang out on the beach, have a bonfire, go swimming, go into town." She clasped her hands together in excitement. "Oh, I can't wait to do it all."

"Are you sure you're okay to do it?" The orange ninja ranger asked, her voice suddenly filling with concern. "You had a pretty nasty fall while at school and I wouldn't want you to get hurt even worse." Out of the corner of her eye, Bailey could see Avalon's lips twitching as if she were seconds away from making a joke. This caused Bailey to smile. As much as she knew her older sister, there was a joke waiting to happen, all Kimberly had to do was take the bait. Which, of course was the nature of the girls' relationship, she did.

"Aww, Av, I didn't know you cared so much." Kimberly reached out her arms and wrapped them around the orange ninja ranger, who smiled and hugged her back.

"I don't," Avalon replied with an evil smile. "I just don't want my Mum to have to worry about insurance claims." Aisha laughed as the pink ninja ranger reached out and slapped her on the arm. "Anyway, I was hoping you could help me with Bay."

"Well, what's wrong?" Aisha turned towards Bailey in concern.

"Nothing's wrong," she insisted. "I'm fine." She grabbed her back and slung it over her shoulders. "Can we go now, please? I just want to go to the beach and have some fun!" She started to move out of the room, but her sister flung out her arm, blocking her way. "Av! Stop!" But her big sister ignored her and turned her around so that she faced Kimberly and Aisha.

"She's a little nervous to wear a bathing suit on the beach."

"Ohhhh." Kimberly and Aisha exchanged glances before the pink ranger grabbed onto Bailey's arm and directed her towards the desk that had a mirror standing on top. The purple ninja ranger tried to get up, but she was forced back down once more. "That's not anything you need to worry about, everyone is concerned about how they look wearing a bathing suit on the beach," Kimberly said. She stood behind Bailey and arranged her hair around her face before taking a brush that sat by the mirror and working it through her hair. "Even the guys are worried about it."

"Really?" Bailey's eyebrows rose skeptically.

"Really. Why do you think they like to work out so much? They're all so vain; they can't stand the idea of not looking good." Kimberly made a face in the mirror, causing Bailey to giggle. "I'm kidding. A little. The guys aren't vain at all, but they like to keep in shape, knowing that it's good frothier mind and body all together. Guys worry more about their fitness while girls worry more about how they look in general. But the thing is, no one notices what you're looking for more than you yourself."

"Exactly," Aisha agreed. "No one else on the beach cares what you look like. It's all about having fun."

"But as it is something that you clearly are worried about, we'll just take care of a few things to make _you _feel better." Kimberly moved to Bailey's front and directed her to her close her eyes, tilting her chin back. The purple ninja ranger felt a few brush strokes over her eyelids and cheeks for a few moments. "Now, it's probably not going to stick once you go in the water, but it should make you feel confident enough to forget about what you see that's wrong."

_Okay. _Bailey nodded quietly as she allowed Kimberly to continue moving the brush along her face with input from the yellow ninja ranger every now and then. _Kim's right. We're supposed to be having fun on this vacation. I shouldn't worry so much. _Finally, Kimberly told her to open her eyes and she did as she was told, looking into the mirror. She felt a smile slide onto her face when she saw the makeup that the pink ninja ranger had put on her. Enough so that it looked natural, but Bailey could see the difference as well.

"Thanks, Kim," Bailey said. She leapt up from her chair and gave her the petite girl a strong hug. Kimberly laughed and hugged her back.

"You're welcome, Bay. Now, are you ready to go the beach?"

"Hey!" Rocky's voice wafted from downstairs. "Are you guys coming or what? I want to hit the waves! They're not going to stay forever, you know!"

The outburst caused Aisha to roll her eyes before tossing her ponytail full of braids over her shoulder. "I don't think Rocko's really giving you much of a choice." She laughed along with the rest of the girls, tightening the sarong she had tied around her waist. "Let's go."

The girls left the room and met up with their friends and Ellie as they waited patiently by the front door. Once they were sure everything had been packed, with Rocky being sure that they had everything within the massive cooler Adam was carrying against his chest, the group set out towards the beach. Kimberly led the way as she skipped along in front of the group, her happiness completely unbridled…though it probably helped that the white ninja ranger was carrying all her stuff.

"For someone that may have had a concussion from falling down the stairs, she really does have a lot of energy," Fred commented from Bailey's side as they strolled along towards the back of the group. His flip-flops smacked against the bottom of his feet in a rhythmic pattern as they went.

"You know, I was thinking the same thing," Bailey agreed. "I hope she'll be okay. It's strange, though."

"What is?" Fred's eyebrows furrowed together as he looked over at her.

She shrugged. "I don't know, it's just a feeling, yeah? Kim is a gymnast; she probably turns all of her trips and falls into some sort of an amazing trick. The same thing happens when we're doing a monster fight. I've seen her nearly face plant and turn it into some sort of a forward roll back to her feet. But… she fell down the stairs, and if she was pushed, who would want to push her? She's one of the most popular girls in school, why would anyone want to do that?"

"Maybe she beat out a girl to get on the cheerleading team." If it weren't for the playful smile on Fred's face, Bailey would've given him a solid punch on the arm. But it was just ridiculous in a way enough so that she managed to laugh lightly. "Maybe it was a monster from Rita and Zedd or something? Or maybe she just tripped, it happens."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Bailey tucked her hair behind her ear and turned her attention to the horizon in front of them. The beach loomed closer the longer they walked, it being at least five or six minutes away on foot, showcasing the bright blue water that rolled onto the sand in massive waves. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she spotted two familiar figures walking along in front of them, carrying a cooler themselves.

She wasn't the only one that seemed to notice them for Adam let out a low humming sound, moving his hands into the pockets of his swim trunks. "Huh, looks like Alyssa and Violet are headed out to the beach today, too."

"Well, it is a beach," Billy pointed out. "A public beach, they have just as much right to be there as we do." But Bailey noticed that his voice was a little flat, almost as if he was trying to convince himself of the fact as well. She then turned her attention to Rock, who made a loud snorting sound, lacing his hands together behind his head.

"Yeah, but to go the same day and the same time we are?" He asked. "That's like when we were first moving in they just so happened to come here. And when they just so happened to want to help us bring everything to our rooms."

"What's so weird about that, Rocky?" Ellie asked, placing her hands on her hips. "Sounds very hospitable to me, yeah?"

"It does," he agreed. "But how many people do _you _know would willingly volunteer to help someone move in."

"We didn't 'move in' we just moved everything into the house," Tommy pointed out. "And besides, we shouldn't worry about it. It's not like anything is going to happen. If they want to hang out, we can hang out, if they don't we won't. The beach is for everyone and we're here to have some fun." He paused for a moment, as if he was about to say something, but stopped and smiled. The purple ninja ranger knew what he was thinking.

_Unless Rita or Zedd send down some monster that's going to make it harder for us to keep things a secret, _she thought. _How hard would it be to connect the dots that the power rangers just so happen to be at the same beach that we are when they're usually only in Angel Grove? They would be very smart to attack us now, but at the same time, it could be a big disadvantage to them as there isn't as many people around to have to hide the secret from._

As if sensing her worry, Fred reached out and grabbed onto her hand, moving his fingers between hers. When she looked over at him he smiled, causing her to blush and look away. Okay, so she didn't always think of things in a scientific way, sometimes she could be girly as well. Even as they walked hand in hand up the path towards the sand, she couldn't help but imagine how romantic things would be while they were at the beach. Not only did they not have as much chaperoning as she thought there would be, there was a lot to do on the beach, then there were the sunsets and the walks they could go on…the thought alone made her stomach hop, skip, and jump around.

The rangers arrived at the beach and started to unpack their things. Once they were completely done, Avalon grabbed her surfboard and started to smear wax over it, moving as quickly as possible so that she could go out into the water, while the rest of the rangers went to play volleyball. Rocky and Adam set up the net as Ellie spread out everyone's towels and chairs so that they had a space plotted out in the sand.

"How many people do we have for teams?" Rocky asked once the net was up. Dusting off his hands, he nodded over towards the yellow ranger. "Not that it matters, with Aisha and I on the same team, no one can beat us." He raised his hand and the yellow ninja ranger slapped it in agreement.

"Do you think that's fair though?" Adam quickly pointed out. He crossed his arms over his loose white t-shirt before rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, whenever you two are on a team together, it's not really fair. And I'd rather have you be on opposite teams no matter how much you argue."

Aisha looked back and forth between the boys for a moment before shrugging. "I'm good on whatever team, just as long as we have fun. Right?" She then turned to Kimberly and gently shook her head, muttering something about 'boys' and 'competitive' under her breath, causing the pink ninja ranger to giggle, hiding her laughter with her hand.

"How many people do we have for teams?" Tommy asked. He quickly did a headcount with all of the rangers. "That's nine people, it'd be too uneven. We need to find someone else to play or else we'd have to rotate on each side." Rubbing his chin, the white ninja ranger started to say something else, but was cut off as Alyssa and Violet walked over. "Hey guys," he greeted them a bit hesitantly.

"Hey!" Alyssa didn't notice the unease that washed over the rangers' faces. She then motioned between herself and Violet. "We couldn't help but overhear your conversation from our setup." She motioned a few feet down the beach before bringing her hand up to shield her face from the sunlight. "You said you need some more people to play? Do you mind if we play with you?"

"The teams would still be uneven," Billy quickly pointed out.

Violet's eyes moved over to the orange ninja ranger, who had finished putting surf wax on her board. "Well, it looks like Avalon really wants to get into the water. I don't think it would be fair to have her play if she doesn't want to." Hearing her voice, the orange ninja ranger regarded the girl with a raised eyebrow before looking at the ocean. Even from where they were standing Bailey could see that the waves were consistently losing power as time went on, they weren't nearly as big as they had been before. If she had to guess, there had been some sort of a storm that had blown through before the rangers had arrived, creating the big waves. She also knew that once those weaves were finished, it would be a while before another storm cell or something large enough to change the temperature of the water as well as the pattern of the ocean to create the waves would create more.

She knew Violet knew that, too.

Avalon chewed her lower lip as she ran a hand through her hair. "I just want to catch a few waves and then I'll be back to play with you guys." She smiled as she tucked her board under her arm and backed towards the water. "I may be short, but I'm really good at positioning for volleyball. Watch me stuff for me, Mum?"

"Go ahead, Cadence," Ellie called back with a light wave of her hand. "Something tells me that you'd tear everything apart if you weren't able to get at least one wave in. Cheers."

"Cheers."

Avalon waved back before running off into the water.

Bailey turned back to Violet and Alyssa as they moved to join the rangers as they split themselves up into teams. She, Adam, Aisha, Tommy, and Alyssa were on one team while Billy, Kimberly, Rocky, Fred, and Violet were on the other. The game moved quickly as the teens, growing up in warm climates took numerous trips to the beach and the lake, giving them an opportunity to learn how to play. The ball shot back and forth across the net over and over again accompanied by the screams of excitement from the teens as a point was scored or a near miss was saved by a quick move.

Bailey found an opening for a good shot against the other time, a sure fire way to get a clear point. A Violet was right handed; she could see that she didn't cover the left side of the court very well. The perfect place to sneak by a point.

"Tommy, over here!" She called.

"You got it." Tommy twisted to the side as the volleyball came his way. He clasped his hands together and bounced it over towards Bailey, who immediately got into position. As the ball came down, she raced forward and jumped high into the air, smacking the ball with her fist. She landed on the ground and watched as the ball flew in the direction she had positioned herself in.

What she hadn't anticipated was for Violet to try and go after the ball, taking a step back then flung herself to the side. The purple ninja ranger cringed as the ball shot down and smacked her in the face, causing Violet to fall backwards on the ground. Eyes widening, Bailey quickly moved her hands to cover her mouth as Violet let out a wail. A louder wail than Bailey thought was necessary. _I didn't hit her that hard._

Nevertheless, it got the rangers' and Alyssa's attention as they scurried over to her. Bailey ducked underneath the net and went to Violet, trying to get a good look at the damage on her face. From what she could see, the teen's face had only turned red, there was no sign of bruising or a broken nose. No blood. And yet Violet acted like she had just been shot in the leg.

"I'm sorry," Bailey quickly apologized as Alyssa helped her best friend to her feet. "I didn't think anyone was going to get that."

"Nice shot, Bay," Fred said with an appreciative smile.

She scowled at him. "I wouldn't have hit it so bloody hard if I thought she was going to get in the way."

"Vi, are you okay?"Alyssa clutched onto Violet as if her life depended on it while Violet removed her hands from her face to see if she were bleeding.

"I think so," Violet said. She turned to Billy and peered up at him. He took a step back, a strange expression sliding over his face. "I think one of my contacts might've popped out of have been moved out of place or something. Can you look for me?"

"If your contact popped out then you shouldn't move," Aisha said quickly. Rocky and Adam immediately got down on their hands and knees, scouring the ground around them for the missing contact. "Just in case it's on you and it falls or something."

"At least let me get some ice," Bailey said.

"You've done enough, thanks!" Violet snapped.

"I'll get it," Kimberly offered. She nudged Tommy's arm and the two went over to their things to look for a bag to put the ice in. Bailey twisted her mouth to the side and shuffled a bit closer to the girl who continued to hold onto the side of her face, batting her eyelashes at the blue ninja ranger.

"I'm really sorry," Bailey said once more. "I didn't mean to hit you. I didn't think anyone would get in the way in time." She looked up towards Billy who hesitantly reached out his hands and angled Violet's face towards the sun so that he could get a good view into her eyes. "Do you see anything?"

"I don't see any scratches or anything on her eyes, and it doesn't appear that her contact popped out. But you can never be too sure about these sorts of things. Otherwise, it only looks like her face is just stung by the ball." Billy dropped his hands and started to take a step back, but Violet grabbed onto his arm, holding her in place.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I don't see anything wrong." The blue ninja ranger turned away as Tommy and Kimberly walked back over with a bag of ice. They passed it along to Violet and she carefully placed it against the side of her face, wincing as he did so. Though whether it was from the cold or the pain, Bailey wasn't sure. She looked over at Alyssa and noticed the smile on her face. Once Alyssa realized Bailey was staring at her, the smile dropped instantly.

_That's weird, _Bailey thought.

"We're going to sit down for a while," Alyssa said, grabbing her friend's arm once more. "Just to be sure everything's okay. Thanks for letting us play, though." She waved to the rangers before guiding Violet off to their blanket. Due to the nature of the accident, the want to continue playing the game diminished and the rangers quickly moved off to do their own thing.

Bailey watched the two girls leave; her arms cross over her chest. A red flag was waving in the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite put her finger on her it. She didn't stop watching the girls until Fred asked if she wanted to go with him, Kimberly, and Tommy on a walk along the beach. Even as the four walked away, she couldn't help but look over her shoulder every now and then.

Something just didn't feel right.

* * *

Rocky let out a low sigh as he rested his arms behind his head. Yes, a little nap was all he was going to need to be rested for the rest of the day. Not only for the rest of the fun and games the beach seemed to bring out in all of them, and it would let him have an empty stomach for when it was time to eat once everyone got back from their explorations of the beach.

He focused on the sound of the crashing waves, the seagulls flying over head, the light breeze that wafted over him as it all lulled him to sleep. It felt that he had only drifted off for a few minutes before his vision darkened. Eyebrows furrowing together, Rocky opened his eyes to find a dark figure over him, blocking out the sun.

"What are you—?"

He barely got the words out before he felt something heavy press over his nose and nose. He started to struggle, trying to push whatever was on top of him, off as hard as he could. But the pressure continued to push down on him.

He flailed his arms and legs, trying to break free from the ungodly force that was being pushed down on top of him. Squeezing his eyes shut, he concentrated hard on his spirit animal, the ape. He could see it let out an almighty roar and punch its fists against his chest, as if telling Rocky not to give up. He got the message loud and clear. Clenching his hand into a fist, Rocky shot his right hand forward as hard as he could, smashing it into the thing that was over him. It was a solid connection and Rocky felt the pressure ease off of his nose and mouth.

Coughing, he rolled to the side as he tried to catch his breath.

He looked around, hoping to catch the person that had tried to kill him, but there was no one there.

* * *

**A/N: **Whew, it's been a while since I've updated. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Thanks to _lizziestrong, Guest, and brankel1_ for reviewing.

~Avalon


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

"I'm just saying that you could've had a better plan than thinking that you lost your contact," Alyssa said. She shook her head as she watched her best friend drop the plastic bag of icy water into the sink. When Violet shot her a glare over her shoulder, her eyebrows rose.

She was no w starting to wonder what sort of relationship her best friend and Billy had, if he rarely acknowledged her. Not only that, but he didn't appear to be happy to see whenever the two came in contact. As a matter of fact, it was as if he didn't really know her at all. And yet, Violet was the one that was consistently gushing to her about the things Billy did for her, the dates they went on, the time they spent together…all with bright smiles and giggly sighs that kept the two of them awake for hours on end when they had their sleepovers.

Every now and then she questioned what was going on with her best friend, never to her face though, as Violet always had a psychotic temper, but she questioned it. If the two of them were so close, then how come they never hung out with each other? Why were the others always disappearing at odd times? Sure she knew Billy had a tendency to be shy, it was why she never found him to be that interesting, to be honest. Jason and Zack had always been the ones that were open and outgoing, even when in kindergarten and most students just wanted to play with their toys all day, they were hanging out with each other. Billy, on the other hand, hadn't managed to come out of his avert shyness until he had become very good friends with the two boys, then Kimberly and Trini, starting especially in the second grade once friendships were formally established.

She had met Violet then and the girl had been just as shy as Billy was, and it was at that age that she had seen the beginning of the infatuation the girl had with the likeminded boy. It was cute at first, by the time they had hit middle school Alyssa truthfully thought that Violet had been holding onto her crush for a little bit too long. Then she had noticed Violet's shift in demeanor as she started talking about the boy more, hearing stories about their dates and everything. She deemed the two of them to be too shy about their peers' opinions of their budding romance and allowed herself to be enthralled by the enchanting and romantic stories of Billy sweeping Violet off her feet with each instance of the good manners that had been bestowed upon him since he was young.

Then she had seen how he was with Trini, or how Trini was with him. They were a little bit _too _comfortable with each other. She had seen the girl grabbing Billy by the hand and pulling him along a lot. But then again, they were 'the group' of the school and always hung out with each other. She had seen Trini and Kimberly do the same with nearly all of the other boys around them, so it wasn't entirely a big deal. Besides, it wasn't like she didn't get jealous of any girl that seemed to come around Jason as it was.

"It was the best thing I could come up with at the time," Violet remarked. She turned her attention back to the plastic bag that sat in the sink and viciously stabbed it with a fork she pulled out of the drawer of utensils beside her. "If I knew that little runt was going to punt me in the face with a volleyball beforehand, I would've come up with something else." She turned back to Alyssa with a small smile, bringing her hand to the right side of her face, where her skin puffed up.

Alyssa did her best to keep from smiling, bringing her hand up to her mouth as she did so. The she lost it, and lowered her hand from her mouth. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "But it was too funny! I don't think I've never seen people jump out of the way of the ball so fast."

"Well, I'm glad it was so funny to you," Violet said. She continued to press her fingers against the side of her face before walking into the living room and stretching out along the couch. "It still kind of hurts. But…at least Billy and I finally managed to get some time alone, even if it was because he had to check to make sure that I didn't get my contact knocked out."

"It was so cute how he did that," Alyssa said. But this time, her heart didn't agree with her. Beforehand, she would giggle and squeal along with whatever it was she said. But now…there were too many inconsistencies. "It would've been even better if he invited you over once they all left. I mean, I didn't see anyone attack them, but it stinks that it did happen. Maybe some of those monsters followed us out here."

"I don't think so," Violet replied with a light shake of her head. "They seem to be too into wanting to take over Angel Grove. Probably because of the advancements that we've made with space travel and all of that. I mean, we _did _get those two guys to land on the moon not too long ago." She tilted her head to the side. "As a matter of fact, that's just about the time that the monster attacks started here. And when the Power Rangers showed up."

"You know what you should've done with your project with Billy instead of making that computer?" Alyssa suggested. "You should have used it as a time to figure out who the power rangers are. I mean, Bulk and Skull tried, but they're about as useless as training bras." She laughed as Violet smiled, gently shaking her head. "You could've spent even more time together if you were to do that."

"Yeah…that would've been cool." As if suddenly renewed by Alyssa's suggestion, Violet sat up straight, her eyes lightning up. "But speaking of the computer, I really need to talk to Billy about it. If we're going to get a head start on the work we're doing, and win that award, then we'll have to make sure everything is ready to go by the time we get back to school."

With a light shake of her head, Alyssa rolled her eyes. "God forbid that we have a vacation to actually have a vacation. You're the only one I know that manages to get all of her work done as well as extra credit for the whole year rather than actually hanging out and having some fun." She pouted. "I thought that's what this week was for."

"It is. And to hang out with my boyfriend."

"He doesn't seem so interested in hanging out with you."

The words came out of Alyssa's mouth before she could stop them. And when she closed her mouth she knew she had made a big mistake. Not only had Violet's body suddenly stiffened, but she saw her eyes flash in anger as well as her face suddenly darken. No, it more than darkened. It was as if she was an entirely different person, her face taking on a dark mask, her eyes suddenly empty. In turn, Alyssa's eyes widened as she crunched herself back further against her chair, as if her best friend had suddenly rushed at her from across the room.

Yet, Violet continued to stay where she sat on the couch, glaring at her friend.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" She spat.

"Vi, you have to admit, not everything you've told me about your guys' relationship makes a lot of sense. "Alyssa voice quivered as she spoke. There was something in the way Violet was looking at her that chilled her to the bone, a stab of fear striking her in the heart. "He doesn't always talk to you—"

"—He's shy—"

"—He doesn't ever want to hang out with our friends—"

"—we don't have out with his friends either—"

"—He doesn't acknowledge you at all whenever he sees you. Half the time it's like he doesn't know you exist."

That seemed to have thrown Violet off for a moment as she blinked in surprise. It was there for a second, not much longer. Then her face darkened once more and she gritted her teeth. The mask was there, but now it took on a significant sense of sadness. If not depression. "We want to keep our relationship a secret," she finally said, causing Alyssa's eyebrows to rise. "It's not that we're embarrassed to be with each other or anything. When we're alone everything's just so great. I really had no idea that he was going to be here this week, which is why we're not really doing anything together. Because—"

"—because everyone else will know," Alyssa said. She nodded. That made a lot of sense. The longer the relationship was a secret, the longer they could go without outside opinions. And here she was, telling her friend that her romance was a sham. _I guess I really am being a bit of a jerk. _With a light sigh, she got up from her chair and crossed the room to flop down onto the couch next to Violet. Her heart continued to hammer against her chest, as if giving out a warning, but she pressed forward anyway. "I'm sorry, Vi."

Violet sniffed and turned her head away. Of course she wasn't going to make it easy; Violet had a flair for being overdramatic when the time called for it. Anything that involved Billy and she was sure to be as dramatic as possible. This was the first guy she really had any sort of feelings for; she just wanted to hold onto the relationship as long as she could.

"Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" She asked.

Violet thought for a moment then turned back to her best friend with a mischievous glint in her eye. "You can keep the others busy while I go talk to Billy. I'm sure he's worried about me since they left the beach since Rocky was attacked. Which was really strange since nothing like that has ever happened there before."

"I know, I was worried about that, too," Alyssa agreed. She studied Violet's face, her eyebrows furrowing together. Nothing registered over her face as she mentioned the attack. "It was so strange. I mean, Rocky's a black belt, just like most of the rest of them…wouldn't he be able to keep from being attacked so badly? And how did the person manage to do it with so many other people on the beach?"

"I guess we'll never know." Violet pushed herself forward and off the couch. She ran her hands over the seat of her overalls and turned back to Alyssa, grabbing her arm and pulling her to her feet. "C'mon, we have to get going so we'll be back in time for dinner. I'm starving."

"Hey, maybe Billy'll invite you over for dinner," Alyssa said, taking Violet's hand as the two hurried to the front door and slipped outside. "Then you wouldn't have to worry about keeping your secret anymore."

"Yeah. Maybe."

Violet, her back towards Alyssa as she dragged her along the darkened street, rolled her eyes. Gosh, how stupid this girl was. And she never stopped talking. If it weren't for the fact they were best friends, she would've dumped the girl a long time ago. Plus, her obsession with her relationship with Billy was really starting to get on her nerves. What was her business in her relationship with her boyfriend? Why was she always asking soooo many questions whenever she said something about him or what he had done for her? No matter what response she gave, there was another question that was hurtled her way before she could even think of an answer that would finally cease them all.

Oh well. It wasn't anything she had to worry about much longer. Now that she was getting her chance for some alone time with him. The thought along made her grin, a light giggle coming from her lips. The two went up to the beach house and knocked on the door. She stood back and gave a pleasant smile as the door opened and David Cranston looked down at the two girls with a curious expression on his face.

"Yes? May I help you?" He asked. Before the two could respond, he seemed to recognize the two of them and looked back and forth up the street. "Right, Violet and Alyssa. Look, why don't you two come in? I don't want you walking around out there by yourself until we figure out what happened to Rocky." He took a step back and allowed the girls into the house. "Was there something you wanted? It's kind of late for you to be coming by."

"I wanted to talk to Billy about something," Violet explained. She turned around and looked at Alyssa with wide eyes and tilted her head towards the living room, where she heard the voices of the other teenagers. "We're working on something for school and I was getting started on it. But then I got caught up on something and now I really need his help. He's upstairs, right?" It was a guess, after not hearing his voice coming from the living room. Besides, he was like her in the aspect that he would probably be finishing off most of his homework before he went to have fun with the rest of the group.

_They always were a bunch of slackers _she thought as she went up the stairs, before David could answer her. _Not like Billy at all. I don't understand why he decides to be with people that don't have anything in common with him at all. It's ridiculous. _Shaking out her hair, Violet smoothed the ringlets down by the sides of her face then pulled it back behind her shoulders. Reaching the top of the stairs, she smiled when she saw the bedroom light on.

Yes. She knew Billy would be hard at work on his school work. And with the others downstairs that gave them some time alone.

She took a deep breath and walked through the doorway to find Billy hunched over his desk, right hand quickly moving across the sheet of paper that was in front of him as he alternatively consulted the textbook that was to his left. No matter what subject he was working on, it certainly had to be something far more advanced than the rest of the rangers. Something she would understand very easily. At least it was a conversation topic.

"You look to be really hard at work," she commented. Startled, Billy fumbled with his pen, shooting it across the room. As he turned to face her, his arm knocked his textbook and notebook to the ground. "Oh. Sorry." She hurried over and helped him pick it up, being sure to lay her hands on top of his or at least in his way when he reached for one of the objects he dropped. She smiled a she cast an odd glance towards her, quickly bringing his hands away. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Billy took a deep breath as he turned towards her. "Is there something I can help you with, Violet?" His tone of voice caused Violet to take a step back. She had never heard him speak to her or anyone that way before.

"I wanted to talk to you," Violet replied. She took a step forward, undeterred. "To have some time alone." She continued taking steps towards him, pausing for a few seconds between each one to be sure that he wasn't going to turn her away. Finally, she reached his side and stretched out her hand, placing it on his wrist. "I wanted to thank you for helping me look for my contact earlier today. And for being so concerned after I had gotten hit with the ball. It was so sweet."

An expression of complete discomfort splayed across Billy's face and he shifted in his seat. Still he didn't take his hand out of her grasp, not finding her to be coming on too forward by any means. "You're welcome, Violet. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work I need to get back to." He started to turn, but Violet tightened her grip on his wrist, keeping him from moving.

"Really," she continued and leaned closer to him. She was going to have to move faster if he was going to be like this. _After everything I've done for him, too, _she thought with a light scowl. "I wanted to thank you. You've been so nice to me. For such a long time. Even when no one else seemed to want to have anything to do with me. I mean, you didn't even make fun of me for that sculpture I made of you. Everyone else thought it was funny."

"It…it was nice," he said to her.

"I'm glad you appreciated it." She started to rub his wrist and as she stared into his eyes, she could see him swallow thickly, his Adam's apple bobbing, eyes widening slightly. "It really means a lot that you really did like it. You're so sweet, Billy."

"Violet—"

He didn't get to say more than that as Violet moved forward and cupped his face in her hands, giving him a kiss. She could feel her cheeks burning red as her heart thudded in her chest. She was kissing him. Finally. It was all she had ever wanted and now she was finally doing it. She kissed him with everything she had in her, all the passion she could put into her lips moving over his, her grasp holding tightly onto her. And she continued to kiss him, until she realized something was off. Instead of him holding onto her, his hands pressing into her back and kissing her back just as enthusiastically; instead of kissing her with as much passion that would allow them to lend their hearts to each other, his moved his hands to her wrists.

Opening her eyes, she blinked down at Billy and slowly pulled back as he lowered her hands from his face. Then he dropped his grasp from her and dropped his hands to his lap, pushing back on the carpet with his feet so he gave himself more distance away from her. Violet took a step back away from him, curling her hands towards his chest.

"Billy?"

"Violet." The way he said her name was so final, it cut straight to the bone. "I'm sorry…if I did anything to lead you on. Or to make you think that we could be anything more than friends."

"Friends?" She repeated her voice cracking as she did so. She stared at Billy as if she didn't recognize him.

"Yes," he insisted and stood up so that he could look down at her. "Violet…we're just friends. And that's all we're going to be. I don't feel the same way that you feel about me. But I'm really flattered and you're such a really nice girl. But I just don't feel the same way."

_I just don't feel the same way._

_I just don't feel the same way._

_I just don't feel the same way._

The words echoed in her head over and over again, she couldn't stop them. As she stared at Billy she could see he was watching her, waiting for her reaction. He would probably comfort her if she let it go to her, honestly. He was such a nice guy. The thought alone made her smile.

_He's so sweet. He always cares so much about me. I'm so lucky to have a guy like him. _She smiled up at him and Billy's eyebrows furrowed together as he watched the smile come up onto her face. She must not have understood what he was saying.

He started to say something else, but his eyes shifted behind her seconds before she felt something pin her arms to her side and she was lifted to her feet. A scream erupted from her mouth seconds before she got a mouthful of feathers. Spitting, she turned her head aside to see that a Tenga had grabbed onto her. She had seen many of them back in Angel Grove, but what were they doing out here at the beach?

From where she was, she could hear the sound of frantic movements from downstairs and realized that the rest of the bird monsters were attacking the others downstairs as well. Billy fell into a fighting stance and glared at the monsters around them.

"What do you bird brains want?" He asked, twisting and turning his head as he watched the birds continue to squawk and flop around.

"The same thing we always want, human!" The Tenga replied and leapt to attack.

* * *

**A/N: **At the moment I'm not sure how long this story will be, though I know I'm not going to have it drawn out for too long. Probably 20 or 25 chapters at the most.

Thanks to _1980sjfk, lizziestrong, Halfcent, _and _Guest_ for reviewing.

**~Avalon**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

* * *

Billy flung himself backwards as the Tenga rushed forward; it's held low and arms out so that it could capture the blue ninja ranger around the waist. He then dodge-rolled to the side so that he wouldn't be caught by the backswing of the Tenga. Violet screamed loudly and Billy had hoped it would attract the attention of his friends, but he could hear there was a similar commotion going on downstairs.

Unfortunately with Violet in the room he wouldn't be able to morph and with her presence in the house in general, with the other rangers, his father, and Avalon's and Bailey's mother having seen her arrive, they wouldn't be able to morph either, so they were at a disadvantage. All he knew was that he had to make sure Violet didn't get hurt. Things were awkward between them at the moment, but he wasn't someone that would let even his worst enemy—which was Bulk and Skull at one point—to be stuck with a monster trying to capture the for one reason or another.

The Tenga abandoned his attack on Billy and turned toward Violet, who was trying to leave the room. He landed on top of her and pushed her to the floor, his heavy feet on her back. Violet squired, frantically thrashing her arms and legs while moving her head aside from the pecks it was trying to land on her. The Tenga then turned around, holding her still with one foot pressed onto her back, the other held up above her.

"Billy!" Violet cried her voice muffled by the carpet in her face. She let out a groan of pain as the Tenga pushed harder on her back. "Help me! Please!"

"Let her go!" Billy declared, falling into another fighting stance. He shifted forward a step and watched as the Tenga lifted its claw and directed it towards Violet's back. Due to his interest in science, and having to study anatomy at multiple times within that study, he knew exactly how close the talon of the Tenga was to Violet's kidneys. Such a small organ that was incredibly important within the human body.

"Come peacefully and I'll let her go," the Tenga said.

Billy gritted his teeth together. He didn't remember the Tengas ever being so bloodthirsty, nor was he sure exactly what it was that it wanted. It was clear the Tenga really wanted him but was this where the Tenga just wanted to capture all of the rangers, or was he needed for something specific. Honestly, Rita and Zedd had the right idea when it came to their quest to capture Jason all those times; he was a formidable opponent to them. Nevertheless the very smart move would've been for them to go after the blue ninja ranger as he was more of an asset. With his smarts, turning him evil would guarantee the forces of evil to have some very impressive equipment.

He wouldn't allow himself to be taken, though. Not when they were to be relaxing and having fun, something that was a bit of a commodity to them as things continued to become a whirlwind of going to school and dealing with monster fights.

"That's not happening!" Billy declared. He glanced down at Violet one more time and found that she was faced away from him so that she couldn't see his work to free her. Using his ninja abilities he disappeared from sight and reappeared on top of the dresser that sat in the corner of the room, behind the door. "Did you miss me?" He leapt off the dresser and crashed down upon the Tenga, knocking the two off of Violet, who scrambled to cower into the corner of the room.

Billy flipped back to his feet as the Tenga scrambled up once more. He found his arms pinned to his sides as the Tenga bear hugged him. His lips, which had been pressed into a thin line, curled up in the corner and steeled himself knowing the next moment was going to hurt. Closing his eyes, he brought his head back then shot it forward, crashing it into the face of the Tenga. He had planned on the forehead, anything but the beak. But it worked out, anyway. His forehead exploded with pain and he could feel the warmth of blood drip down his forehead a second before the Tenga dropped him onto the ground. It cawed in pain, bringing its feathered hands up to its beak that held a distinct crack in the front.

For a moment the blue ninja ranger hoped that he didn't have a shard stuck in his forehead, but as he lightly touched his wound, wincing as he did so, he didn't come across any fragments of beak that were stuck to his skin. Lowering his hand, he leaned back on his right foot and straightened his left, directly striking the Tenga in the face by the bottom of his foot in a strong, well-placed kick. The Tenga flew back and fell against the wall, wings and legs flapping all over the place, leaving feathers to dance and weave through the air.

Finally it got back to its feet and shoved Billy aside, knocking him to the floor, before disappearing from sight. He must've been called back by Rita and Zedd, or else they would've flown away on their own.

"Billy!" Violet was at his side, grabbing onto his arm and brushing his hair back from his forehead. "Are you okay?" She leaned close to him looking into his eyes and he quickly backed up, getting to his feet.

"I'm fine," he replied. And considering how many different fights he had been in over the past couple of years, including one where he had caught one of Jason's strong kicks to the ribs, the wound he received was nothing. "Are _you _okay?"

"Yeah…" she stood up and leaned into his side, gazing up at him. He swallowed hard, sure that the muscle in his jaw was working overtime. "I'm okay. But…I thought those things only attacked in Angel Grove; I didn't think they'd be out here, too."

_That's because they know the power rangers are out here, _Billy thought. _Which is actually a percipient plan. They wait until we believe we're in a state of susceptibility and strike then. _He would've been impressed if he wasn't so…so what? Angry? Irritated? Worried?

All of the above.

It didn't help that Violet had such a tight grip on his arm, making him even more anxious than he had been before.

"Come on."

He moved to leave the room and felt Violet move her hand from his arm so that she had her arm looped through his. He ignored it and hurried down the stairs to the living room, having had to have just missed the other Tengas leaving, for there were feathers drifting all over the place, settling down to the carpet. First he looked for his father, who was coming in from the outside, a flashlight in hand.

"Dad!" Billy hurried over to him and grabbed onto his arm.

"Billy." David examined his son, his eyebrows furrowing together as he looked over the trail of blood on his forehead. Instead of speaking about it, he reached out and grabbed onto his son in a tight hug and the two men held onto each other tightly. The same thought had to have been floating through their minds; how easy it would have been for one of them to have been lost because of the lack of being able to morph. The Tengas had always been strong footmen, much stronger than the Putty Patrollers they had been used to. To the point that being in their ninja gis weren't enough to keep them safe.

"I'm okay," Billy muttered into his father's ear, gently rubbing his back. "I'm okay."

David backed up and took his son's face in his hands and studied his face. "I'm glad." He reached up and rubbed the drying blood away from his eyes, making a face as it stuck to his hand. "Well, you've always had a thick skull," he added, making the two of them laugh.

Billy smiled then his eyes trained on the flash light that was in his father's hand. "Did you intend to beat them with that?"

"No. I was checking to see there weren't more of them coming in. When they first attacked they were all in here, I figured if they were doing what I thought they were trying to do…" he trailed off as he watched Violet sitting aside from the rangers, her hands draped in her lap, gently running over each other. Billy nodded. "There would've been more than the ones that were in here."

"Good thinking, Dad. I'm glad you're okay." Billy turned to assess the damage the rest of his friends had accumulated and found they all looked fine, if not a little roughed up. Kim, as he could see, didn't appear to be as out of breath as the others and if Tommy defended her, it was a wise decision. With her injuries from having fallen down the stairs, she could damage herself even further. If she hit her head at all, a possible concussion could've occurred which would've been worse.

"We should go around and see if anything has been damaged," Ellie said, her voice soft from the couch where she sat between her daughters. "Maybe call the police or something, yeah? I don't know how well the people out here are in tune with what goes on in Angel Grove, but they should be aware if something like this is going to happen again." At the mention of the authorities Billy noticed Violet suddenly stiffen, her face going pale.

Then he glanced over at Tommy and the two exchanged a knowing glance. She was saying it for Violet's benefit, as they all knew why the Tengas were there. It wouldn't be a surprise in the slightest if Goldar or Rito showed their faces, or if there was a new monster creation that suddenly rammed its foot through the roof of their beach house.

"Violet, you should go so that your friend and her family aren't worried about you, sweetie," Ellie continued. "I'm sure they'll find out about what happened soon, considering the commotion that has been going on around here."

"Okay." Violet continued to rub her hands over each other and didn't move. Billy knew she was waiting for him to offer to walk with her, but stayed quiet, turning his head away. So much so that he suddenly felt guilty. His mother and father had both instilled respect and politeness to everyone he ever came across as it was a good way to get the same sort of respect back, but…considering the circumstances he didn't think it was a good idea.

His mother must've been turning in her grave at the thought alone.

"I'll walk you back," Rocky then offered, raising an eyebrow towards Billy as if he was reading the blue ranger's mind exactly. Or else he wasn't as stoic as he had thought, revealing everything through the expression on his face.

"No, I'll do it," David insisted, motioning to his flashlight. "You need to get your head checked out," he added, causing Billy to notice the bruise that was forming around the red ranger's eye.

"I've been telling him that for years, but he never listened to me before," Aisha joked, causing the rangers to let out a collective breath of air, releasing the tension around them. Adam nudged her on the arm and the two seemed to have remembered some sort of amusing thing that Rocky had done when they were back in Stone Canyon for they laughed harder while Rocky rolled his eyes.

David held out an arm and Violet got up from her seat and shuffled over to Billy's father, following him out of the house without a backwards glance. Once the door was closed behind them, Ellie got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to retrieve the phone. All at once the rangers started to talk.

"I know that these guys really want to defeat you guys, but this was ridiculous," Fred remarked, removed his baseball cap from his head and running a hand through his hair.

"They had to have known Violet was here so we couldn't morph," Bailey added. She shook her head and muttered something under her breath that sounded like, "bloody, brilliant."

"Does this mean that no matter where we go we're not going to be safe?" Kimberly asked.

"I think we've been aware of that for a long time," Billy said slowly, sitting in the seat Violet had just preoccupied. He sat still for a second before shuddering and moving aside. He could still feel her hand on his arm. "But haven't really thought about it." He brought a hand up to run over his face and found it slide easily over the skin. Bringing his hand back down, he stared at the bright red blood on his palm. "Damn."

"What happened, Smurf?" Avalon asked concern evident in her voice. She got up from the couch to join her mother in the kitchen. Probably to get some ice. "You looked like you ran into a bloody wall, yeah?"

"I don't think that was the best choice of words, Av," Tommy pointed out to her, though he couldn't help but smile at the joke. Then his smile faded and he looked hard at Billy. "That Tenga must've done some good work on you, man."

"Actually, it was more like his beak did a good job of doing some work on me," he corrected and quickly explained what had happened, leaving out what had transpired between him and Violet. He really had no idea what to do or had any idea if she understood what he had been trying to say. Her smile after he had turned her down didn't help matters much. He jumped as he felt something press against his forehead and looked up to find the orange ninja ranger firmly holding a dishtowel wrapped around a bag of ice to his forehead. "It was all I could think of to do to keep them from getting to Violet." He frowned. "Did they say anything to you guys?"

"The usual," Kimberly said with a wave of her hand. "Wanting to capture us, take us back to Rita and Zedd at all costs." She shrugged and ran a hand through her hair. "I don't expect us to ever have a _completely _stress free vacation, but I figured even Rita and Zedd would take some time off." She shook her head. "Should we just go back to Angel Grove?"

"No," Aisha replied, shaking her head. "We deserve this time off and I don't know about you guys but not Rita and Zedd is going to ruin that for me."

"I'm with Aisha," Adam agreed. He reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder. "I want to have this vacation as much as anyone else, it's not fair if we're constantly putting our life on hold and don't allow ourselves to have some fun every now and then."

"I agree," Fred added. "Even the police departments and fire departments get days off every now and then." He looked over at Tommy, who had been quiet for the most part. He was the one that didn't appear to be as roughed up as the others though it wasn't that surprising to Billy. He had studied martial arts much longer than any of the others, showing his talent in battle when it came up. "What do you think?"

Tommy sucked in a deep breath and looked around at his friends. They didn't appear to be too rattled over the fight; there wasn't that much damage to the property, and they had only just arrived at the beach. But since they _had _arrived strange things had been going on; Kim had been hurt, Rocky had been attacked, the Tengas arrived. Though they weren't mutually exclusive it wasn't anything that could be ignored.

"We should stay," he finally agreed. "We've been here only for a few days and we haven't really started to have fun yet. And Fred is right, we deserve some time off every now and then and it's not like we're completely putting down our ranger duties, if it's anything that's too bad, Zordon and Alpha will let us know."

"Let's see if they know anything about the attack," Billy suggested. He gently pushed Avalon's hand away from his face and brought his communicator up to his mouth. "Zordon, Alpha, come in. There was just a fleet of Tengas that came here and attacked us, do you have any readings?"

"Our sensors did indicate that there were Tengas in your area," Alpha replied after a second. "But Rita and Zedd haven't sent down Goldar or any of their monsters. It's possible that they were acting on their own free will."

"But that's never happened before," Bailey pointed out.

"Yeah, why would they start it now?" Avalon added. She brushed her hair back out of her face as she thought for a moment. "It's not how they work, they only follow what Rita and Zedd had to say, especially after Ivan was destroyed. They're like…puppies changing owners, yeah? They don't really think for themselves."

"Well, let's be honest, whatever footmen those goofballs come up with aren't really smart," Rocky said and grinned. It was the first grin that managed to come since Violet and David had left. "They're not extremely smart themselves, either."

"Rangers the last thing you want to do is overestimate your enemy," Zordon said to them. It was the closest he had come to being parental towards them and Billy felt it in his gut. They were right, overestimating the kind of power or knowledge in anyone was a mistake in all walks of life. "But it is strange that Rita and Zedd hadn't tried to attack Angel Grove while you all have been gone. I'm not sure it is something we have to worry about, but we will continue to monitor them."

"Thanks Zordon." Billy lowered his communicator and shrugged as if that ended the conversation.

"So I guess that means that we're still going to have our vacation," Adam said. He smiled a little. "How about this time we go into town and see what's to do there? Maybe it's something in the water around here that's weird."

"I like that idea," Aisha agreed with a light laugh.

"Shopping!" Kimberly and Avalon cried at the same time. The pink ranger squealed, throwing her hands into the air as she did so, causing the group to laugh as Ellie walked back into the room. She looked over the rangers and chuckled, shaking her head.

"I'm glad to see this sort of home invasion can keep you guys entertained," she remarked. "I mean, the beach is just so boring, yeah?" She shook her head before motioning to the phone in her hand. "I just got off the phone with the police; it seems that they're familiar with what has been going on in Angel Grove. There's not much they can do, but they'll assess the place for damage for insurance."

"Alright, Mum, thanks," Avalon said to her. She turned her head to the side, playfully making a face as her mother leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Billy started, eyes growing wide as he felt Violet's hands on his face once more, holding onto him as she gave him that forceful kiss. Guilt rolled through his gut and as his friends all started to get up to go to their rooms; he placed his hand on Avalon's shoulder and held her into her seat.

"I need to talk to you," he said in a low voice, hoping to keep from attracting attention to them.

"Sure, Smurf," she replied then regarded him carefully. "Is everything okay? Does your head hurt?"

"My head's fine but I think I shouldn't go to sleep for a while, to make sure I don't have a concussion." He had studied enough to know the warning signs within himself and others though he didn't think he hit his head hard enough. He started speaking once they were alone. "Um, when Violet had come upstairs to talk to me about our project…she didn't want to just talk about the project," he said slowly. Avalon raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue. "She kissed me and I don't know how I did, but I gave her the impression that we were more than friends. I told her I wasn't interested, but I don't think she really understood me." Then he explained how he thought she had been coming onto him for a while, not having to include the times that she had made different projects in his likeness in art class.

That was common knowledge around the school by that point; he still got teased about it every now and then.

Avalon watched him for a moment before letting out a light sigh. "I can understand that," she said, surprising him. "People don't really get the point unless you tell them point blank, sometimes. I had the same problem with Chase when we broke up."

Now Billy's eyebrows came together, wrinkling his forehead. Then he relaxed his face, it hurt too much to be able to do that and he could feel the wound on his forehead opening once more. That wasn't the response he had expected to get. In a way he was a little bit disappointed she wasn't as angry about it as he thought he would be. One thing he could say about the Australian girl was that she was passionate about many things and when she was stuck on the one emotion, she was stuck for a while.

"Y-you're not mad?" he asked.

"I'm not aggro over the fact that she kissed you more than you didn't tell me this was going on until now," she said honestly. Though he could tell from the way her hands clenched at her sides that she wasn't being entirely truthful. It made him smile a little. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought you would attack her," Billy joked, causing Avalon to roll her eyes. "I don't know why, Ava, I thought I was imagining things."

Now Avalon raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "You don't think you're attractive enough to have other girls come onto you?"

"No, I know that." It wasn't a bragging thing; he wasn't even trying to be arrogant. It was a fact. Even when he didn't think much of himself there were girls that were interested in him; Melissa; Kimberly's deaf friend who taught him how to dance, Marge, Laura, Bailey had a crush on him at one point, Trini, Violet, and now Avalon. So that meant there had to be _something _about him that girls found attractive, though he didn't dwell on it. "I'm at least aware of it, I just never thought too much about it."

"Whatever." She snuggled into the couch and stared hard at him. "Like I said, I'm not mad she kissed you more than I am that you haven't said anything." She then paused. "She hasn't like…tried anything else has she?" He immediately understood her implication as she trailed off her question and he flushed, causing her to grin. "You can't think you're not sexually attractive either, mate."

"I did _not _need to hear that!" Tommy declared as he slapped his hands over his ears, quickly walking by the couch. Billy hadn't even noticed that the white ninja ranger had even come back into the room until he noticed the bag of chips dangling from his hand, obviously on his way back from getting a snack. The horror on his face, proving that he had just heard what Avalon said, proved that he truly was starting to think of the orange ranger as his sister rather than his friend, though the adoption hadn't been finalized yet.

"Then you don't need to be snooping, Tommo," Avalon shot back. She reached out her hand and slapped him on his lower back as he walked by her. Tommy walked faster out of the room, pressing his hands harder against his ears. "Ten bucks Kim'll come flying down those stairs next." She took the ice pack from his hands and gently pushed his hair back from his forehead before pressing the ice in its place. "I think you may get a scar, but you'll be okay."

Billy smiled and reached out, taking her free hand in his. "Are you sure you're not mad."

"I'm sure. Now, if she tried again, that'll be a completely different story, yeah?" She smiled and leaned in, giving him a kiss, a sinister smirk on her face when she pulled back. "Because you're mine."

"That's good to know." He laughed and then his attention was brought to the front door as his father came back inside. "Is everything okay?" He called to his father.

David nodded as he turned off the flashlight. "Everything is fine. Violet's a bit shaken up but Alyssa and her parents said they'd keep an eye on her just in case. I also warned the parents about the attacks that went on though I don't see how they could miss it." He ran a hand over his face, suddenly looking worn out. "We've had a few eventful days so far haven't we?"

"I'll say. Mum says the police have been notified and they'll look around for damages for insurance," Avalon said. "So there's no need to worry, mate."

"Thanks Avalon. I'm going to go to bed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Dad," Billy replied. He suddenly felt as tired as his father did. "Actually, I'm going to head up myself." He squeezed Avalon's hand and gave her a kiss before pushing himself up from the couch and heading up to his and Tommy's room. As soon as he went in he heard thudding footsteps seconds before the sounds of Aisha's and Kimberly's squeals reached his ears and smiled. They really didn't miss a minute in gossip.

Billy tossed his ice pack onto the end of his bed and stretched out on it before rolling onto his back, finding Tommy glued into a football game being shown on the TV. Absentmindedly he reached out the hand that held the bag of chips offering some to the blue ranger. He smiled and took a handful before shifting himself up to rest against the headboard.

They didn't need to talk and as it was, Billy was all talked out.

He got everything off his chest, but he still didn't feel completely comfortable.

At least there was something to take his mind off it.

* * *

**A/N: **Wow, I haven't updated in almost two months. I'm sorry for the wait, but as you can see, my focus is mostly on _These Walls. _Anyway, I hope you don't hate me for what happens, but I like to throw wrenches into things every now and then. Haha. ;)

Thanks to _1980sjfk, lizziestrong, Halfcent, _and _Guest_ for reviewing.

**~Avalon**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Violet frowned as she viciously twisted her apple in her palm, her other hand holding a knife pressed to the skin of the apple. Each rotation caused the skin of the apple to peel off in one long, continuous twirl. Then the skin peeled off and she continued to shred the apple to bits.

Okay, so her plan hadn't gone well at all. Confessing her feelings to Billy had been the hardest thing she had ever done and he still wasn't calling her. What was she going to have to do? Glue his phone to his hand so he got that he couldn't just sit back and take advantage of her feelings for him? She knew he could be shy, but this was just getting ridiculous. And now Alyssa was starting to turn her back on her, what was up with that?

"Violet, sweetie, are you okay?" Violet looked up at Alyssa's mother and frowned when she noticed the apple that she had been peeling seconds before was now just the apple core. She had been so absentminded with her movements that she hadn't noticed she was starting to saw through the middle of the core. One slip of her hand and she would have stabbed herself in the palm with the pointed end. Startled, she dropped the apple core and the knife onto the counter, finally noticing the carnage she had managed to spread. "Is something bothering you? Ever since we got here you seem to be really upset."

Sighing heavily, Violet dropped her shoulders. Maybe she should talk to someone about this. Boy problems were something every girls went through and even thought Alyssa's Mom was married, that didn't mean that she couldn't remember the times she had issues with her own love life. And Alyssa did brag about her and her mother talking about everything. _Not like me and my Mom can, _Violet thought as she rolled her eyes. _She's always getting into my business._

"Well, there's this guy," Violet said and smiled a little as Alyssa's Mom came around the counter and sat down beside her. She had the perfect expression of 'been there done that' that immediately made Violet feel better. "I really like him. I've always liked him since I met him. We're perfect together. He's nice, cute, sweet, funny, and he knows so much about science, like I do. And that's all I've wanted; someone that can actually understand me when I start talking about everything I'm interested in. And he has his own lab!" Violet's eyes lit up like fireworks as she continued to talk about Billy, then they dimmed a little as she remembered her struggles.

"But?" Alyssa's Mo pressed.

"But it's really hard," Violet admitted. "I told him I like him. I've kissed him. I made him a statue in art class. And he and I both came up with the idea of the science club building our own computer as our entry in the science competition. But I can't get him to ask me on a date to save my life."

"Wait a minute." Alyssa's Mom held up a hand before running it through her hair. "This is about Billy right? I thought you two were already dating? That's what Alyssa told me anyway."

Violet scowled. _Geez, Violet, how stupid can you be? You can't even keep your stories straight! _Her hands clenched into fists as she continued to breathe heavily through her nose. She tried to keep her composure. _You've got to keep your head on straight. Idiot. _"He is," she said, finally calming down. "But like I said, he's so shy so it's hard to see where we stand, sometimes. And my Mom and Dad want to meet him and want to have dinner with him and I don't really know what to do."

Alyssa's mom was silent for a long moment. She brought a hand up to push her hair back out of her face. "Well, from what Alyssa and you have both told me, I think, like you said, this boy is really shy and doesn't know how to make his feelings for you known in public. Now, I'm not saying that you should shove him out of his comfort zone and into yours, but it might be good to talk to him about how you don't feel appreciated by him. If he doesn't really acknowledge you or let others know about your status then there may be something else wrong."

_Oh there's something else, alright. _Violet couldn't help but allow a light growl to escape her lips. Multiple somethings. All of the other girls that Billy had gone out with before and all of those girls that were around him now were a problem. Kimberly was just so freaking perfect and perky and had been around Billy as long as she could remember, Trini had been the one that was closer to Billy than she could ever imagine and that infuriated her, then there was Avalon and Bailey and Aisha and….ugh, she couldn't even stand the thought.

"He has other girls around him all the time," Violet murmured.

"But they may just be his friends," Alyssa's mom insisted. "It's possible for guys and girls to just be friends."

_"Violet…we're just friends. And that's all we're going to be. I don't feel the same way that you feel about me. But I'm really flattered and you're a really nice girl. But I just don't feel the same way."_

Anger and embarrassment flashed through her once more. Then something snapped in her head and she slowly smiled. All of her fears and worries washed away as quickly as water leaving a sink where the plug was pulled. "I know what you mean, I just can't help it. Tommy and Kimberly have been dating as long as Tommy has been at that school. Bailey's too young for him. I think Rocky and Aisha have something going on and Avalon is practically dating Jason as it is." She sighed happily. "I guess there really is nothing that I have to worry about."

"Honestly, considering how much you feel towards him, the boy would be crazy to let you go." Alyssa's mom reached out and patted Violet on the shoulder. This girl has been her daughter's best friend as long as she could remember, going so far as to be like a daughter of her own. "But my advice in general, Vi…don't let one boy ruin your happiness. He's not worth it. You're still young; you have plenty of other people that you could meet between now and the time you get married. There's plenty for you to do without having to worry about boy drama."

"I know." Violet smiled. "Thanks." She reached out and hugged Alyssa's Mom, tightly.

"You're welcome, Vi." Alyssa's mom hugged her back. "I'm glad you're okay, too. After hearing about that monster attack that happened and seeing how quickly you came back last night, we thought something might have happened to you. And you know Alyssa wouldn't have allowed any of that to happen." She let out a light laugh as she shook her head. "Not that she or my husband would know they're such heavy sleepers they wouldn't have even noticed if a bomb blew up next to them."

Violet giggled.

"So, what do you say that we get some breakfast started for them and we can figure out what to do for the rest of the day?"

"Okay!"

And as Violet whisked around the kitchen, she went through the motions of creating a large breakfast for the four. Her mind was on what she was going to do next. She could tell her mother and father that Billy was going to have dinner with them and then talk him into it after a day of working on their computer. But then she had to figure out how to get the others out of the way. Pushing Kimberly down the stairs hadn't scared the girl enough to stay away from Billy, and attacking Rocky hadn't done anything to send him back to Angel Grove either. She was going to have to step her game up a little bit, especially for those that were closer to her.

Avalon and Bailey both lived with Billy so that was going to be the hardest thing. Still, it seemed that Kimberly was the one she was going to have to target for a while. That girl…she was everything that Violet wasn't and it was starting to really tick her off. What right did she have to be around Billy like that all the time when she was dating Tommy? Violet shuddered; she couldn't help it, they were just so sweet and cutesy and it drove her insane at how gross it was. And bringing a guy like Tommy down into that as well? Disgusting. The three of them…now that Zack, Trini, and Jason weren't around as much; it was like they were their own little club.

All of them were like that and they weren't trying to make Violet feel welcome at all. _I mean, we're dating, don't people get that? _Violet thought with a shake of her head as she focused on mixing pancake batter. _I should be part of that group. I should be begged to be part of that group! _She slowed down once the pancake mix sloshed over her arm, an idea had come to her.

An idea big enough that made her grin like a lunatic.

"What's gotten you so happy all of a sudden?" Alyssa's mom asked as she looked over from the fruit she was chopping to make fruit salad.

"Nothing much." Violet shrugged. "I'm just happy."

Oh was she happy.

* * *

Leaning into the bathroom mirror, Violet closed her right eye and carefully swiped eye shadow over onto her eyelid. Then she did the same with her left and placed mascara along her lashes. Leaning back, she tilted her head to the side and studied her reflection. Her wild, curly hair which was now straightened due to the use of Alyssa's flat-iron lay around her shoulders in gentle waves. Her makeup was minimized into a natural look that didn't take too much away from her already beautiful looks. (And she had gotten such a great response from the others when she had showed it off before). Her outfit was something that wasn't normally something she would wear—Alyssa forced her out of her overalls and purple t-shirts into a purple sundress with bright purple shorts underneath along with white sneakers, but she really liked how things turned out.

It was perfect.

She looked like the kind of girl Billy would go for.

She looked like Kimberly, actually. The girl was the perfect person to emulate. She was probably the most popular girl in school and everyone had nothing but good things to say about her. So why not use her as a means to try and get her point across to Billy? They always said the imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. Why not use that to her advantage.

"Girl, you look great," Alyssa said as she leaned into the mirror and pursed her lips, pressing her reflection right next to Violet's. "The boy is going to have his tongue drop to the ground when he sees you. Like the last time!" She reached out and moved her hair off her forehead, but Violet couldn't miss the expression of disbelief and—worry?—that moved through her best friend's eyes.

_That's alright. She doesn't have to believe in me either. I know what I can do. _Violet spun herself around and jumped off of the counter, pressing her dress down as she did so. It was going to take some time to get used to that compared to the overalls she was so used to wearing. What was so wrong with that? She was able to carry everything at once and it was her own style. Okay, it was like Billy's style, but it was a style that worked.

"I hope so," Violet agreed. She looked at her watch. "We have some time before they'd be done with breakfast; I'm going to finish my painting, okay?"

"Am I ever going to be able to see it?" Alyssa planted her hands on her hips and gave her best friend a hard stare through the mirror. "You've been working on it since we got here and you haven't even given me a hint as to what it is."

"It's a surprise!" Violet winked at her best friend before she left the room. _That's what Kim would've done, right? _Her insecurities overcame her before she could stop them. They were always at the back of her mind, taunting and teasing her every time she allowed even a one sip of her psyche. She had to be strong if she was going to succeed.

Walking into the spare bedroom that Violet had turned into her own personal art studio for the duration of their vacation the smell of paint immediately hit her nose, making her smile. One thing she could say for sure, if she didn't have a career in science, she would certainly have one in art. Locking the door behind her, Violet crossed the room to the canvas that was covered and pulled the sheet of paper off. With a tiny, half smile on her face she reached out and ran her finger along the edge of the canvas, looking it over. She had gone through every painstaking detail she could remember of Billy's face to be able to make it perfect. The massive canvas held each and every brush stroke she could make to mimic the strands of his hair, the light in his eyes, the pinks of his lips, and the warm colors of his skin tone.

She had thought about adding his glasses to the picture but he looked so good in his contacts. It made his eyes that much more amazing and even as she stood in front of her painted canvas it was like Billy was standing right in front of her, looking at her lovingly. Violet reached out and picked up her paint brush, spinning it through the blue-green she had mixed up earlier that day and started to take care as she moved it along the areas that were Billy's eyes. No matter how many times she worked on his eyes they didn't seem to do them justice compared to the real thing. There was always something that was just off; maybe that it didn't have the lively warmth? No. She studied his eyes long enough to know how that looked.

She took a step back and stared at the canvas a moment longer, then turned her attention to the photograph that was taped to the side of Billy smiling and laughing. Everything looked the same but his eyes. What was it? Violet continued to look back and forth from the canvas to the photograph, but she couldn't quite put her finger to it.

_Oh. _The realization was abrupt as a bolt of lightning. There was love and happiness in the eyes of the photograph, but not in the canvas. It was because he had never looked at her that way. Not in person. The only times she had seen a smile directed her way had been when they were talking about the computer. But nothing like what he gave his friends and family, nothing like the ones she deserved. "I deserve this," she murmured. "I deserve _you. _Why won't you let me have you?" She stabbed her paint brush into the black paint and started to slash long, drawn out marks across the face of her painting, ruining it within seconds.

"Why? Why? Why?"

She continued to repeat the word in a chant, the more she said it, the more she became enraged. It filled her with more power than she thought possible. She heaved her paint brush to the ground and picked up the cup of black paint, throwing it onto the canvas before whipping around and going to her box of art supplies. Rooting through it she pushed aside pencils, erasers, small brushes, and colored pencils until she found her X-Acto knife. Spinning it in her hand she turned back to the canvas, held it high over her head, then stabled Billy's face, right in the eye. Ripping her arm down she tore a thin line through his face, then twisted her hand the other way and did it again.

Slashing her arm up and down over and over again, Violet stabbed and punched holes into her canvas, before she took a step back, dropping the X-Acto knife to the tarp that lay all over the floor of the room. Smearing paint off of her cheek, Violet stared hard upon her painting. T was reduced to shreds, covered in black paint, but the photograph clipped to the side remained unharmed.

There had to be something left to keep her going.

It wouldn't take much longer until Billy realized he had no choice but to be hers.

* * *

**A/N: **So, again, this story is going to end between 20 and 25 chapters, and I hope to start updating it more frequently than I have been. Going through Violet's psyche as she, basically, goes crazy is really fun. I don't know why it is, but it is. And to think the idea came from the one episode that (watching as a person in my twenties) can easily see as a character being kind of crazy compared to sweet.

**~Avalon**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

* * *

The morning sun was still blue with dawn as Billy and his friends woke up the next morning to head down to the beach and boardwalk. Their first day at the beach had been ruined due to what had happened to Rocky, because Alyssa and Violet tagged along, and because they had no time to themselves. That was the point of the trip, wasn't it? To get some time away from their ranger duties and have fun with each other. Thankfully the forecast that Billy had been keeping careful measure of had shifted enough so they'd have the entire day filled with sunlight.

Even better was the fact that everyone appeared to have moved inland to check out the shops that day so the beach was nearly empty for their brood. Ellie and David made up camp up on the beach as soon as they had arrived, diving their heads behind a magazine and a straw hat. David having explained that he had gotten little to no sleep not only because of the monster attack they had dealt with, but because, as he put it, he 'didn't realize that teenagers snored so loudly'.

"You sure you're gonna be okay here by yourself, Dad?" Billy asked, after twisting the umbrella into the sand so that the shade covered his father. He then placed his hands no his hips. "I'd hate to think that you were going to spend most of your day sleeping."

"Billy," David said as he lifted his hat off his face. "Once you're as old as I am, or when you realize that you've been working on your experiments for _far _too long, you'll be begging to sleep as much as I do." He dropped the hat back over his face once more, letting out a low sigh as he did so.

Laughing, the blue ninja ranger reached up and grasped the back of his neck with his hand. "Whatever you say, Dad." He looked at his watch then shielded his face, turning his gaze towards the sky. His eyes glimpsed over the sun then moved towards the horizon. "I estimate the sun will switch positions to the point that you're completely in the sun in about three or four hours so please be sure to put on sunscreen accordingly."

"You got it," David replied. Billy couldn't help but allow his smile to widen. It was the most relaxed he had seen his father since his mother died. If he had known something like that would be the easiest way to get him to relax…

Billy let out a low sigh and lowered his head, trying to push away the feelings of his own grievances that were starting to rise up in his chest. It was a crippling feeling, allowing the darkness and depression to take him over. He didn't have time to feel those things; clinically he knew what depression was and he knew how it would affect him. His work would fall by the wayside, he would have no motivation, he wouldn't be able to get up and do his ranger duties…there was too much at stake. It wasn't that he didn't think of her, he thought of her all the time. She always showed up in his dreams, reassuring him and encouraging him. It was just too painful.

But now was the time for them to have fun. Not to dwell. Besides, he was sure that his mother was enjoying the beautiful day as well. As soon as the thought entered his head a butterfly then flew across his view and he took a moment to watch it. Spots of blue on the wings mimicked the color of the sea, the flecks of yellow and orange rivaling a sunset. The wings of the butterfly fluttered rapidly but he could see the even brighter colors underneath.

His mother always did like butterflies.

The light began to warm as Billy waked along the beach, heading towards his friends, who were already in the water. Further down the beach a stand was set up with fruits he couldn't see, though the citrusy smell of oranges, kiwi, and apples immediately reached his nose. It was the best time of day for them to arrive, while the beach wasn't empty by any means, they weren't to be easily disturbed.

"Billy!" Rocky called, cupping his hands around his mouth. He then waved an arm over his head, sending droplets flying causing Kimberly and Aisha, who were the closest to him, to shriek and turn their faces away in case the water fell into their eyes. "Come on! We're going to play chicken!"

"I'm coming!" Billy replied. He hurried into the water and swam out over to his friends. He did a quick headcount then frowned. With himself, Tommy, Rocky, Adam, Fred, Bailey, Avalon, Kimberly, and Aisha there weren't enough of them to make even teams. When he pointed it out, Adam was quick to say that he would team up with Rocky and Aisha so that Aisha would have a double chance as well as to even out the teams. Shrugging, Billy allowed the team formation. It wasn't a big deal; they were just supposed to have a fun day.

Tommy moved to pick Kimberly as his partner, but the pink ranger immediately moved to Billy side and climbed up onto his shoulders. "I choose, Billy!" She cried then laughed at Tommy's completely baffled expression.

"Why would you want to have Billy as your partner?" Fred asked, giving her a funny smile as he moved Bailey t his shoulders, holding onto her legs to keep her stilly. "Tommy is soooo much bigger than Billy is." Glaring, Billy shifted his gaze over towards Fred, who took a few seconds to realize his mistake and smiled sheepishly, muttering an apology to the blue ninja ranger.

"That the same thing I was thinking," Rocky pointed out. "But I wasn't stupid enough to say anything."

"And that's saying something," Avalon muttered under her breath as she swam over to Tommy and grabbed onto his arm, hoisting herself up onto his shoulder. Billy and the others laughed as she struggled to shift her weight onto his shoulders, pulling onto his ponytail as he did so, causing him to cry out in pain and give an indignant cry of, "That's not something for you to climb on, Av!"

"Relax, Tommy, you're not going to go bald for another ten years, one tug isn't going to hurt it." Avalon then crossed her arms and rested her weight on Tommy's head, causing him to give a begrudging smile as she smiled sweetly in contrast.

"Whatever." Kim stuck her tongue out at her boyfriend. "I want to partner with Billy because he'd be able to figure out the best way to beat everyone with that big brain of his." She wrapped her knuckles against Billy's head and he smiled as he held onto her legs to keep her from falling off. "Don't worry, Av, I'm not trying to steal him from you like Violet is."

Avalon rolled her eyes. "Please don't mention that girl to me; I swear I wouldn't be able to take control of my actions." She then reached out and playfully pinched Kimberly on the leg, making her squeal and back away, gripping Billy's shoulders even tighter. "Let's play, yeah?"

Billy smiled and laughed along with his friends as he moved into the position to start the game. Adam, who was sitting out the first round treaded water to the side, going to give the signal to start the game. One he announced a countdown; the rangers moved forward and started to wrestle each other. True to form, Tommy and Fred turned towards each other as Avalon and Bailey grabbed onto each other's arms and tried to push and pull each other off their teammate. A colorful vocabulary of Australian slang and what were obvious inside jokes—he didn't know anyone else that continuously called each other 'Booger'—flew left and right as they shouted at each other.

His laughter made him lose focus for a second, causing Kimberly to slip off his back. He shot out his arm and shifted the pink ninja ranger up onto his shoulders once more and focused on the placement of his feet underwater. Not being far out from the shore, there was still plenty of space for them to be able to plant their feet in the sand. Realizing this, Billy shifted his feet back and forth in little movements until he dug himself a pit around his feet, holding him still. Then he bent his knees and locked his muscles enough so that when Rocky moved towards him, trying to push him back, he was unable to be budged. He had to bite his lower lip to keep from laughing out loud when he noticed Rocky's features twist into one of frustration.

"C'mon, Rocky put your back into it!" Aisha declared.

Already annoyed, Rocky tilted his head back, blinking rapidly as water dripped down into his face, to glare his friend. "I'm _trying_! Why don't _you_ do something?" There was a sudden pause and as if thinking the same thing, Rocky and Aisha looked at each other then grinned evilly. Billy's smile immediately moved from his face when he realized that his right foot started to move backwards as if Rocky was pushed a box across the floor.

It took him a second to realize what had happened. He and Aisha were tapping into their animal spirits and were using them against them. That was seriously not fair. And as much as Billy never showed it too much, while he wasn't one that played on too many sports teams, he absolutely _hated _to lose. Whether it was a science or math competition of some kind, or an experiment that was giving him trouble, he always wanted to come out on top. Despite the friendly competition for the game, he wasn't going to allow himself to lose.

All of a sudden he felt Aisha push hard on Kimberly in a shove that should have knocked her off of his shoulders. But Kimberly somehow managed to swing her body around with the momentum of the push and right herself on Billy's shoulders once more; using her crane spirit. He then shifted his right foot forward to be able to fit it into the mold he had made for his foot before and glanced at Rocky's form. His eyes shot around to the way Rocky held up Aisha on his shoulders and his form, making a mental calculation, then took another step forward. To his side he heard the sound of a loud scream and watched as Avalon and Bailey went toppling over into the water with an almighty splash.

Moving closer, Billy pressed his chest into Rocky's shoulder and pushed hard; being careful that Aisha wouldn't react by kicking him in the face. The accurate strike, with the aid of his wolf spirit which made a low growling sound of approval inside him, causing Rocky to stumble. Then all of a sudden, Rocky let out a loud shriek of surprise, twisting in the water.

"Something just touched my foot!" He cried. "What just touched me?"

"Charge!" Kimberly declared and Billy moved forward once more, allowing Kimberly to knock Aisha off his shoulder. The pink and blue ninja rangers cheered, punching the air with their fists before high-fiving. "Woohoo!"

"Oh come on," Bailey complained as she pouted. "No one said that we were able to use our powers. I actually put in the work." Her pout deepened and she swung her arm in an arc, sending a wave of water up into Kim's face, where she sputtered and finally fell off of Billy's shoulders. One she surfaced she went over to Tommy and pushed his hair back from his face before wrapping her arms around her neck and kissing him, ignoring the mocking sounds of disgust their friends made.

Billy shifted backwards as started to tread water as it was Adam's and Aisha's turn to try their luck, with Fred and Bailey going up against them this time around. He pulled himself through the water with a few pulls of his arms, lazily kicking himself in circles around the ocean. Closing his eyes, he allowed the sun light to warm his face before a jarring wave of cold washed over him. Immediately he lowered his feet to the ground and used his wolf spirit to glance around the beach, eyes narrowing. If he didn't have his ranger powers he wouldn't believe that his line of sight would have improved so well but it did aid him as he scanned each and every face along the sand.

Nothing.

He could've sworn he was being watched.

_Calm down, Billy. You're letting everything get to you. _He almost wished there was a monster fight that was about to happen. Just so he could get his leftover worries out of the way.

"Everything okay, Smurf?" Billy turned around to find Avalon standing at his side, the water coming up higher on her chest and neck. Tilting his head to the side, he found the orange ranger standing on her tiptoes so that she didn't sink down further into the sand.

"Everything's fine." He leaned in and kissed her, which she eagerly returned. "Just fine."

And he meant it.

Everything _was _fine. He was letting his paranoia start to take him over, something that typically only came around when he found things were going too well before a monster fight. But this was different. They were on the beach, enjoying their vacation.

And the day was enjoyed in all sorts. After an hour of playing in the water, the team broke off for some food, and then played a game of volleyball before going off to do their own thing. He and Adam found a canoe that they worked around the water, Kimberly and Aisha suntanned, Avalon took in some waves on her surfboard, Bailey, Fred, and Rocky made a sandcastle, and Tommy practiced some of his martial arts on the sandy surface.

The sun beamed high in the sky above them, warming everything around. Children raced around, screaming happily, couples walked hand in hand along the sand, Ellie had even managed to make a sandcastle of her own, placing as much sand as she could along David's lower half as he continued to sleep. Then there was a sudden gust of wind, nearly strong enough to flip his and Adam's boat over. Twisting around, Billy found dark clouds rolling in; realizing the storm he had been tracking had shifted and now moved over the beach.

"C'mon," Billy called, turning the boat around. "We better go back in!"

"Right behind ya!" Adam agreed.

The two paddled hard to the shore as it started to rain, bringing in everyone from all over the beach, screaming and yelling each other as they went. A family of four screamed in confusion as their picnic blanket and items were blown away from the wind, before laughing as they ran breathlessly down the beach. Little kids started to stand in the rain; heads back and holding their mouths open as they tried to catch rain drops while their mothers latched onto their arms and dragged them along.

Curses, screams, shouts, and laughter rang out along the beach as Billy and Adam hurried over to their friends, who were laughing and yelling at each other as well. What was a bit of rain water when they were on the beach? It was then that chaos ensued, people running over each other to get away from the driving rain.

And as Billy glanced around at his friends as they moved quickly to pack things up, already soaked, he couldn't help but grin.

* * *

**A/N: **So I think the rangers deserved at least one good day, even if it did get rained out a bit. Haha. I'll update again soon.

**~Avalon**


End file.
